Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search
Breaking News:

Reus nets on return as rattled Dortmund bounce back

Germany winger Marco Reus scored on his return after six weeks out as Borussia Dortmund beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-1 on Saturday in their first Bundesliga match since the midweek bomb attack on their team bus.

Dortmund’s players hold the jersey of Dortmund’s Spanish defender Marc Bartra who was injured during the bus attack on April 11 after the German First division Bundesliga football match between Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt in Dortmund, western Germany, on April 15, 2017. Ina Fassbender / dpa / AFP

Germany winger Marco Reus scored on his return after six weeks out as Borussia Dortmund beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-1 on Saturday in their first Bundesliga match since the midweek bomb attack on their team bus.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos and leading scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were also on target in a victory which allowed Thomas Tuchel’s side to all but wrap up a top-four finish and boost morale after a shocking last week.

Three bombs containing pieces of metal rocked the Dortmund bus on the way to Tuesday’s Champions League match against Monaco and left defender Marc Bartra hospitalised.

The quarter-final first leg was eventually played on Wednesday but Dortmund lost 3-2, their players later admitting they were still shell-shocked by the attack.

Dortmund were buoyed before kick-off on Saturday as Bartra was released from hospital following surgery on a broken wrist.

Reus, back from a hamstring injury, needed just three minutes to open the scoring in front of a sell-out crowd of 81,360 and a heavy police presence at Signal Iduna Park.

Frankfurt drew level on 29 minutes when Marco Fabian’s speculative shot hit the top-right corner, but Sokratis restored the hosts’ advantage before the break with a thunderous effort that barely deviated as it flew past Frankfurt goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky.

Aubameyang netted his 26th league goal this season late on to secure the points, and make him the division’s joint top scorer alongside Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski.

With runaway league leaders Bayern at Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday evening, second-placed RB Leipzig trimmed the gap at the top to seven points with a 4-0 thrashing of Freiburg.

Yussuf Poulsen gave RB an early lead before putting Timo Werner in behind the Freiburg defence to net his 16th league goal this season just prior to the break.

Guinea midfielder Naby Keita netted with a superb shot on 51 minutes before Diego Demme hit their fourth.

The win means Leipzig, in their first top-flight campaign, are now guaranteed a top-four finish and a crack at the Champions League next season.

Third-placed Hoffenheim also moved a step closer to Champions League qualification after their stunning 5-3 win at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach.

The goals flowed in Sinsheim as Hungary striker Adam Szalai scored twice to give Hoffenheim a 2-0 lead before Europa League-chasing Gladbach clawed back with goals in quick succession by defender Jannik Vestergaard and captain Lars Stindl.

Hoffenheim’s Kerem Demirbay fired in a free-kick and striker Mark Uth came off the bench to make it 4-2 with 15 minutes left.

Gladbach’s Mahmoud Dahoud netted to make it 4-3 before Demirbay grabbed his second.

Relegation-threatened Mainz broke their five-match losing streak with a 1-0 win over Hertha Berlin thanks to Danny Latza’s winner to leave them 15th.

Augsburg are one place below them, but level on points, after they beat Cologne 2-1 despite finishing with nine men.

Augsburg had Koo Ja-Cheol and Alfred Finnbogason sent off in the final frantic minutes as a penalty by Paul Verhaegh sealed the hosts’ win.

An own-goal by Markus Suttner and further strikes from Yunus Malli and Mario Gomez gave Wolfsburg a 3-0 win at home to Ingolstadt.

0 Comments