Dortmund routs Gladbach in Real warm-up

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice and Marco Reus provided three assists as Borussia Dortmund prepared for their Champions League clash at Real Madrid by routing Borussia Moenchengladbach 4-1 in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Dortmund are fifth in Germany’s top flight, six points behind leaders Bayern Munich, who won 3-1 at Mainz on Friday, and RB Leipzig, who host Schalke on Saturday evening, ahead of their trip to Spain.
With both sides already into the last 16, the victor at Real’s Bernabeu on Wednesday will be confirmed as Group F winners.
Dortmund warmed-up with an emphatic win over Moenchengladbach at Signal Iduna Park.
The fleet-footed Reus was outstanding as Dortmund fought back after Gladbach took the lead with six minutes gone when Brazilian forward Raffael slotted home from the edge of the area.
However, Dortmund were level 59 seconds later.
Ousmane Dembele dribbled through the visitors’ defense and his pass found Reus, who laid the ball off to Aubameyang to drill past Gladbach goalkeeper Yann Sommer with his first touch.
Dortmund grabbed a second on 15 minutes when Dembele’s corner was flicked on by Marc Bartra to Lukasz Piszczek, who headed home.
Reus had a goal ruled out for offside just after the break, but there was no containing the winger.
With deft footwork, Reus poached the ball off Gladbach defender Nico Elvedi to allow Dembele to slot home Dortmund’s third on 64 minutes.
The pair struck again four minutes later when Dembele’s pass and Reus’ backheel saw Aubameyang score his second and Dortmund’s fourth.
Having slammed his team after their 2-1 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt last Saturday, Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel was full of praise.
“It was a complete performance from us,” he enthused.
“We had to be very industrious up front and brave due to the lack of room they allowed us.
“We kept the energy and the aggressiveness in our game over the 90 minutes, that was the key.”
Hertha Berlin held onto third with a 3-2 comeback victory at 10-man Wolfsburg as Salomon Kalou converted the winning penalty in the 91st minute.
With his side near the relegation zone, Wolfsburg coach Valerien Ismael dropped Germany international Julian Draxler from his starting line-up and his side responded with two goals in the opening 20 minutes.
Ex-Real Madrid striker Borja Mayoral gave Wolfsburg a 12th-minute lead before Marvin Plattenhardt put Hertha level by expertly drilling his free-kick over the wall.
Wolfsburg went back in front when midfielder Paul Seguin, who was later sent off for a second booking five minutes from time, slammed his shot home on 18 minutes.
Alexander Esswein levelled for Hertha 20 minutes from time before Daniel Caligiuri fouled Plattenhardt to concede the penalty Kalou converted for the winner.
Hoffenheim, who along with RB Leipzig are the only unbeaten teams in the Bundesliga, are fourth after romping to a 4-0 win at home to Cologne.
Ex-Bayern striker Sandro Wagner scored twice for Hoffenheim while Jeremy Toljan and Mark Uth also got on the scoresheet.
Bayer Leverkusen, who host Group E winners Monaco on Wednesday with both teams through to the knock-out stages of the Champions League, drew 1-1 at home to Freiburg.
Janik Haberer gave Freiburg a shock first half lead before Hakan Calhanoglu levelled after the break.
Leverkusen’s Javier Hernandez failed to convert a late penalty as the Mexico striker fired his spot-kick at the feet of Freiburg goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow.
Werder Bremen climbed out of the bottom three with a 2-1 win at home to Ingolstadt, who are second from bottom, thanks to Fin Bartels’ second half winner.

Source: Arab News