Bundesliga Review: Dortmund cut Bayern´s lead to eight points

Borussia Dortmund cut Bayern Munich’s lead at the top of the Bundesliga table to eight points with a 3-1 victory at Borussia Monchengladbach on Saturday.

Marco Reus opened the scoring for the visitors in the first half with a tidy finish at the end of Ilkay Gundogan’s throughball, while Henrikh Mkhitaryan put Dortmund in control just after the break. 

Raffael gave Gladbach hope with his ninth goal of the season in the 58th minute but the hosts were unable to find a way back into the match and Gundogan wrapped up the points for Dortmund with 15 minutes remaining at Borussia-Park, tucking home Mkhitaryan’s cross.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Stuttgart came from a goal down to win 3-1 at Cologne. 

Anthony Modeste’s penalty put the home side in front after 19 minutes, Georg Niedermeier having brought down Marcel Risse, but Daniel Didavi equalised for Stuttgart before the break, knocking in the rebound when Timo Horn saved from Timo Werner. 

After half-time, Werner headed home Filip Kostic’s corner and Christian Gentner secured the visitors their first away league win for four months to ease their relegation worries.

Darmstadt also enjoyed success on the road, recovering from a one-goal deficit to beat bottom side Hannover 96 2-1 at HDI-Arena. 

Hugo Almeida struck 10 minutes into his Hannover debut to give the hosts the advantage but Sandro Wagner levelled before the break and then scored the winner in the second half, converting from close range after Jan Rosenthal’s header hit a post, to send Darmstadt six points clear of the relegation zone.

Omer Toprak rescued a point for Bayer Leverkusen in a 1-1 draw with struggling Hoffenheim. 

Toprak tapped home from close range with 15 minutes left for the visitors at Rhein-Neckar-Arena, after Jiloan Hamad had fired second-bottom Hoffenheim in front five minutes before the interval.

Ingolstadt ended a four-match winless run in the Bundesliga with a 1-0 victory against Mainz thanks to Moritz Hartmann’s 41st-minute penalty, while Hertha Berlin and Augsburg shared a goalless draw.