(Football news) Dortmund made difficult work of Greuther Furth as they beat them 3-0 to close the gap to six points at the top. Erling Haaland scored his first goal in the 33rd minute and then grabbed his 53rd league goal in 53 Bundesliga matches in the 82nd with a powerful towering header. Dutch international Donyell Malen added a third goal with a smart finish at the far post in the 89th for his fifth goal in six games in all competitions. Haaland scored a little later with a well-struck penalty following a hand ball in the penalty box and could have doubled the lead later but could not direct the ball into the net from close quarters. Furth almost surprised the hosts as they were about to score in the 38th but Cedric Itten's shot sailed just wide. Haaland made sure of the three points, powering in a header from a Julian Brandt free kick eight minutes from the end for his 13th league goal of the Bundesliga campaign. With this result Dortmund moved to 34 points, six behind runaway leaders Bayern.
Dortmund coach Marco Rose said after his team's first win in the last three league games “The performance was a lot of hard work. We had chances but we were a bit sloppy, not fresh enough. We made too many mistakes, had some good phases and also had good chances. But overall it was not the performance we wanted. Everyone felt it. It was not a good game from us and expectations from us are high. But I hope the result is some consolation,"
RB Leipzig suffered a disappointing draw 1-1 against Augsburg as Andre Silva’s early goal was canceled out by Daniel Caliguri’s penalty. André Silva could have cut a hat-trick in the first half but was guilty of missing a few simple chances. The home team threatened Gulácsi's goal only once in the first 80 minutes, with Reece Oxford's second half header, Christopher Nkunku and Angelino were inaccurate in front of the home goal but in the 85th minute equalized for a given for handball penalty in Augsburg, a place as a substitute Daniel Caligiuri shot into the top right corner. With this result RB moved to 9th with 22 points as they are five points from the Champions League places.
RB Leipzig coach Domenico Tedesco said “We were definitely the better side in the first-half, in terms of our play and big chances. We simply had to score more. If it had been 2-0 at halftime, which it could have been, then it’s a different game and you’re more relaxed in defense towards the end. Augsburg worked really hard and invested a lot. They played with a lot of intensity. However, I think if we took our chances, we’d have won the game.”
Also read: Premier League: Arsenal defeat West Ham in battle for top four
The other results are:
- Wolfsburg 2 (Nmecha, Weghorst) – 3 Koln (Modeste x2, Uth)
- Mainz 4 (Lee, Hack, Widmer, Boetius) – 0 Hertha
- Arminia 2 (Okugawa, Wimmer) – 0 VFL Bochum
- Mönchengladbach 2 (Neuhaus, Bensebaini)(pen) – 3 Frankfurt (Maury, Lindstrom, Kamada)
- Union Berlin 0 – 0 SC Freiburg
- Leverkusen 2 (Schick x2) – 2 Hoffenheim (Stiller, Dabour)
