Leaders Dortmund run riot at ten-man Hanover

Borussia Dortmund opened a four-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga on Sunday with an impressive 4-0 win at ten-man Hanover 96 as Jurgen Klopp’s young side ran riot.

With second-placed Mainz losing at Freiburg on Saturday, Dortmund are now well clear of their main rivals and have a nine-point lead over third-placed Frankfurt thanks to their win in Hanover.

Japan midfielder Shinji Kagawa scored his fifth goal of the season when he put Dortmund ahead after dribbling his way into the penalty area and fired home from 17 metres after just 11 minutes.

Paraguay striker Lucas Barrios then made it 2-0 win a superb goal on 72 minutes when he completed a flowing attack which split the hosts defence and converted Lukasz Piszczek’s cross and beat two defenders to the ball.

Barrios earned a yellow card for his over-enthusiastic celebrations.

Hanover defender Karim Haggui was shown a straight red on 77 minutes for kicking Dortmund’s Jakub Blaszczykowski — known as Kuba for short — in the head in the area and Borussia were awarded a spot-kick.

Turkey midfielder Nuri Sahin had his penalty saved, but Blaszczykowski had the final word when he scored his side’s fourth goal in added time.

Fifth-placed Bayer Leverkusen are at home to Kaiserslautern on Sunday as they bid to close the gap behind Dortmund while second-from-bottom Stuttgart host struggling Werder Bremen.

On Saturday, Germany defender Philipp Lahm saved Bayern Munich’s blushes with a late equaliser to snatch a point from their 3-3 draw at home to bottom side Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Defending champions Bayern are still off the pace in the league as they are ninth in the table and 12 points behind top place.

Second-placed Mainz suffered a 1-0 defeat to Freiburg as striker Papiss Demba Cisse netted a late penalty.

Eintracht Frankfurt are up to third in the league after they beat Wolfsburg 3-1 with the league’s top-scorer Theofanis Gekas netting twice to take his tally in the league to 11 goals for the season.

Hoffenheim are fourth despite losing 2-1 at Hamburg, who are now up to joint sixth in the table with Nuremberg who beat Cologne 3-1.

On Friday, former Spain international great Raul scored a brace as Bundesliga strugglers Schalke 04 finally ended their jinx at the Veltins-Arena with a 3-0 home defeat of St. Pauli.

Schalke were second from bottom and moved up two places to 15th on nine points, 19 adrift of league leaders Borussia Dortmund while St. Pauli remain in 13th on 13 points.