Goals from Serhou Guirassy and Maximilian Beier took Borussia Dortmund to a 2-1 win at Colognetightening their grip on Champions League qualification. Dortmund’s pulsating 3-2 home loss to Bayern Munich last week ended their slim Bundesliga title hopes. Saturday’s win took second-placed Dortmund eight clear of fifth-placed RB Leipzig.
Beier teed up Guirassy after 16 minutes, floating a ball over the Cologne defence for the Guinean to score his 12th Bundesliga goal this season.
The hosts’ hopes of fighting their way back dimmed just before half-time when Jahmai Simpson-Pusey planted his studs in Beier’s heel and Daniel Siebert upgraded his yellow card to red after the video assistant referee recommended a review.
Beier was in the thick of things again when he swept home on the hour mark. Jakub Kaminski scored a late consolation for the hosts but Dortmund held on for their first league victory since mid-February.
Bayer Leverkusen came from behind twice but gave up the lead late to draw 3-3 at Freiburgdays out from their Champions League clash with Arsenal. Leverkusen host the Champions League favourites on Wednesday in the first leg of their last-16 tie but Saturday’s wild draw may hurt their chances of reaching next year’s competition. The result leaves Leverkusen sixth, losing ground on their top-four rivals Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig, who both won.
Freiburg twice went ahead thanks to goals from Vincenzo Grifo and Yuito Suzuki but Leverkusen twice equalised through Christian Kofane and another superb free-kick from Alejandro Grimaldo. Martin Terrier’s goal had the visitors on track for victory but Matthias Ginter struck with four minutes remaining to level things up.
RB Leipzig also looked set to drop points in the top-four race but forced Augsburg’s Arthur Chaves into a stoppage-time own goal in a comeback 2-1 home win. Robin Fellhauer gave Augsburg the lead after teammate Keven Schlotterbeck missed a penalty but Yan Diomande pulled one back for the hosts before Chaves scuffed a David Raum cross into his own net.
Leipzig’s win took them to fifth, level on points with fourth-placed Stuttgartwho drew 2-2 at lowly Mainz. Stuttgart fell behind to a Jae-Sung Lee strike but looked to have turned the match with goals to Ermedin Demirovic and Deniz Undav inside 61 seconds, before Danny da Costa nabbed a late equaliser for the hosts.
Hoffenheim took a step towards a second ever Champions League qualification with a 4-2 win at rock bottom Heidenheim to stay in outright third. Alexander Prass bagged a first-half brace and Fisnik Asllani and Tim Lemperle scored for the visitors, while Luca Kerber scored a double for Heidenheim.
Hamburg came from a goal down to win 2-1 at Wolfsburgwith all three goals coming from the penalty spot. Frustrated fans threw flaming scarves on to the pitch after the defeat, which pushes second-last Wolfsburg, who were German champions in 2009, closer to a first-ever relegation.
Meanwhile, Manuel Neuer will miss Bayern Munich’s Champions League last-16 clash with Atalanta on Tuesday after picking up another calf injury. Bayern said their captain and goalkeeper suffered a “minor muscle tear” during the 4-1 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Bundesliga on Friday.
Bayern, the runaway leaders, did not give a timeframe on Saturday for his return but Bild reported Neuer will be out for two weeks. That means he would miss both legs against Atalanta as well as the Bundesliga match at Bayer Leverkusen.
Later on Saturday, Juventus take on a Pisa side all but guaranteed to be relegated, needing a win to keep up their hopes of fourth place and a Champions League place.
In Spain, Barcelona visit Athletic Bilbao in the late game.
