Bundesliga: Lewandowski brace sinks Leverkusen as Dortmund breeze past Mainz to go second

(Football news) Bayern ensured last week's defeat against Frankfurt was just a minor blip as they thrashed Leverkusen to reclaim the lead of the Bundesliga. On the other hand Dortmund continued their 100% win record at home as they defeated Mainz to keep the title race interesting as they moved within one point of Bayern.

Bayern again made a statement of intent by thrashing Leverkusen 5-1, Nagelsman’s team were back to their rampant best as they just outplayed a very good Leverkusen side. In the first half it took just four minutes for Lewandowski to open his account after he finished with a brillant backheel from a Upamecano cross, on the half hour mark the visitors again scored after a blistering counter attack by Alphonso Davis who set up Lewa to finish his second goal of the match.

The utter dominance continued as Bayern showed no mercy, four minutes after Thomas Muller scored one, he then a minute later set one goal for Gnabry who in the 37 minute added a fifth to score his second of the match to completely obliterate Leverkusen in the first half. Although Leverkusen regrouped in the second half and scored a consolation goal through Schick, ultimately the wrath of Bayern’s performance was too much to handle for them. With this result Bayern reclaim the lead with 19 points.

“It sounds a bit strange when you've scored five goals, but we could have had six or seven in the first half today," Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann said.

"It was clear after 45 minutes that the three points were coming to Munich, we knew that we would have to play our football from the beginning today, and the result shows how well we played," said Lewandowski, who kick-started the rout with the opening two goals.

“Bayern showed us today why they are the best team in Germany and one of the best in Europe," said Leverkusen coach Gerardo Seoane.

Dortmund also continued their recent resurgence as they won 3-1 against Mainz, Marco Rose before the match began received a massive boost as they had got Erling Haaland back from injury. It took Dortmund three minutes to find the net as Reus scored his 14th goal in 20 games against Mainz, the first ended with both teams creating a lot of chances but Dortmund held out the lead till half time.

In the second half, Haaland’s penalty gave Dortmund a sigh of relief as late in the match Mainz made it an interesting contest as they got a goal back from Jonathan Burkhardt, but Erling Haaland scored from a quick counter attack and made sure Dortmund won their 9th consecutive home league match. With this result Dortmund leapfrog to second with 18 points and mainly just one point of Bayern.

Also read: Serie A: Napoli maintain their 100% start to the season as Juventus continued their resurgence after a narrow win over AS Roma

RB Leipzig couldn’t continue their recent winning run as they drew against SC Freiburg in their first home match in their new stadium. In the first half Leipzig were the dominant side as they scored through a penalty which was converted by Emil Forsberg in the 32 minute but the story of the second half was completely different as Freiburg settled their nerves and got the all important equaliser from Jeong in the 63rd minute. With this result Jesse Marsch’s side continued to struggle in 8th place with 11 points whereas Freiburg moved into the top four with 16 points.

The other notable results were: