Reus scores brace and Dortmund cut gap to Bundesliga leaders Bayern

Berlin (dpa) – Borussia Dortmund cut the gap to Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich with a 3-0 win at Union Berlin on Sunday.

Dortmund are now six points behind Bayern, who were thrashed 4-2 by Bochum on Saturday.

Captain Marco Reus broke the deadlock as he fired a shot between Andreas Luthe’s legs and secured a brace still in the first half after recovering a lost ball in the midfield.

When Union were trying to come back into the game after the break, Raphaël Guerreiro crushed their hopes and sealed the win.

Kevin Möhwald seemed to have pulled one back for Union with some 15 minutes left but the potential lifeline was disallowed due to a foul on Dortmund defender Manuel Akanji.

“We had a very uneasy week,” Reus said referring to the 5-2 home defeat to Bayer Leverkusen last weekend. “We can now positively look ahead.”

This was Dortmund’s first triumph at the An der Alten Försterei stadium since Union were promoted to the Bundesliga in 2019, having lost the two previous meetings.

“It’s extremely hard to play here, Union are a great team. But we wanted to put up a fight,” Reus said.

Despite closing the gap to Bayern, Dortmund defender Mats Hummels believes his side still has a lot of work to do.

“We still need to bring a lot, a lot more to the pitch. We must take things seriously, must always perform well. Then, maybe, we can dream about it,” he said.

The defeat left Union in sixth and ended their run of four unbeaten games at home, which included a derby win against Hertha Berlin.

“You can lose against such a strong team. With their quality, it’s a bit difficult,” Union defender Christopher Trimmel said.

Hoffenheim beat Arminia Bielefeld 2-0 and ended a negative series of three straight defeats in the Bundesliga. Captain Benjamin Hübner and striker Georginio Rutter scored the goals at the Rhein-Neckar-Arena.

Hoffenheim join Leipzig, Freiburg and Union with 34 points in a four-team share of fourth place, but are fifth due to the goal difference.

Bielefeld, meanwhile, are the first team out of the drop zone in 15th but with 22 points are tied with Augsburg, who currently sit in the relegation play-offs spot.

Union fans brought a banner to protest against the possible introduction of a championship play-offs in the Bundesliga.

Recently, new German football league (DFL) boss Donata Hopfen said she wasn’t ruling out the idea to make the league more competitive as Bayern are chasing a 10th straight domestic title.