Berlin, March 1 (IANS) Dortmund won the 146th edition of the “Revierderby” against Schalke, while Leverkusen reaped their ninth victory of the season at the 23rd round of Bundesliga on Saturday.
Juergen Klopp’s men extended their winning run to four straight victories as they overpowered Schalke with three late goals at the 146th “Revierderby”, Xinhua reported.
Dortmund controlled the proceeding from the kick-off against passive visitors from Schalke, who focused on their well-positioned defence. As a consequence, Dortmund worked out a number of goal scoring opportunities at the first half but neither Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, whose effort onto the open goal was blocked by Schalke’s Matija Nastasic, nor Marco Reus, who was unable to overcome Schalke’s youngster goalkeeper Timon Wellenreuther twice from promising positions, were able to open the scoring.
However, things changed after the restart as Dortmund increased the pressure against hapless Schalke. Yet the spectators at the outsold Signal-Iduna Park had to wait until the 78th minute before Aubameyang was able to break the deadlock. The Gabon international utilised a misplaced clearance to slot home into the bottom right.
Schalke were unable to put up some resistance against frenetic Dortmund. Thus, the “BVB” doubled the lead only a minute later when Henrikh Mkhitaryan tapped in Ilkay Guendogan’s square pass into the box to make the game safe.
Nevertheless, the hosts were not done with the scoring as Marco Reus snatched the ball off Schalke’s goalie Wellenreuther to slot home the 3-0 lead with five minutes remaining.
With the eighth win of the season Dortmund climb on the ninth place whereas Schalke slip to the fifth place, suffering their fifth loss.
Leverkusen returned to winning ways as they downed relegation threatened Freiburg 1-0 to earn their first win after three winless games. Both sides staged an uneventful performance in which goal-scoring chances remained a rare occurrence.
Leverkusen’s Simon Rolfes was able to make use of one of the few chances by hammering home a rebound from Freiburg’s goalkeeper Roman Buerki at the 33rd minute. It remained the only goal of the match as Freiburg’s offence posed no threat to Leverkusen’s defence.
With the ninth loss of the season Freiburg remain on the penultimate position of the table, while Leverkusen climb on the fourth place.
Last positioned Stuttgart squandered an one-goal lead to share the spoils with Hannover following a 1-1 draw to spill crucial points.
Christian Gentner opened the scoring for Stuttgart at the 52nd minute when Hannover’s defence failed to clear the ball from the danger zone. Hannover remained unimpressed and restored parity through Lars Stindl, who cancelled out Stuttgart’s narrow lead securing his side a point on home soil.
Both sides had to complete the game with 10 men as Martin Harnik saw a straight red card for a violent conduct while Stindl saw booked his second yellow card of the afternoon in the closing period.
Stuttgart remain on the last place of the standings with just 19 points from 23 games while Hannover slump to the 11th place.
Elsewhere, Hoffenheim defeated resilient Mainz 2-0 on home soil to seal their ninth win of the season. The “TSG” sealed the deal with two second-half goals thanks to Kevin Volland and Eugen Polanski.
Struggling Berlin earned vital points in the relegation battles as they defeated Augsburg 1-0 by courtesy of Salmon Kalou’s last-grasp winner at the 88th minute and Frankfurt craved out a 2-1 victory over Hamburg.
The following fixtures are scheduled for Sunday: third placed Monchengladbach host newly promoted Paderborn whilst runner-up Wolfsburg encounter Bremen.