Erling Braut Haaland netted twice on Saturday for Borussia Dortmund in the 3-1 victory over RasenBallsport Leipzig in the Bundesliga.
The Norwegian attacker had a hand in Dortmund’s opening goal at the Red Bull Arena as his cross from the right was delightfully flicked onto the path of Jadon Sancho with the England international sweeping home in glee from close range.
Leipzig were almost level on 67 minutes when Daniel Olmo’s powerful shot from a tight angle came off the inside of the post with the Dortmund goalkeeper, Roman Buerki rooted to his line.
Haaland then got a goal scoring contribution to extend Dortmund’s lead and it was a thing of beauty.
He began a sweeping team move, showing nimble footwork to bamboozle five Leipzig players before squaring to Sancho on the far side.
Sancho then exchanged passes with Emre Can and Raphael Guerreiro before producing an inch-perfect cross on the far post for Haaland to head home past the stranded Leipzig goalkeeper, Peter Gulacsi.
Haaland completed his brace in the 84th minute, latching onto a deft Reus through ball and rounding Gulacsi before slotting into an unguarded net.
Alexander Soerloth netted for Leipzig in the 89th minute but it represented nothing more than scant consolation as the damage had already been done by the Black and Yellow who moved into the Champions League places with 28 points from 15 matches.
The defeat meant that Leipzig missed a golden chance to go top, following Bayern’s shock 2-3 loss to Borussia Moenchengladbach on Friday.
Leipzig however stayed second with 31 points from 15 matches, two points adrift of the champions, Bayern.
Schalke are no longer the bottom club as they won their first game of the season, thrashing Hoffenheim 4-0 at the Veltins Arena with Matthew Hoppe netting a hattrick.
The day’s biggest winners were Freiburg as five different goal scorers, Ermedin Demirovic, Nicolas Hoefler, Roland Sallai, Philipp Lienhart and Lucas Hoeler getting off the mark in an emphatic win.
Bayer Leverkusen continued to lose valuable ground in the title race as they drew 1-1 with Werder Bremen at the BayArena.
Omer Toprak gave the visitors the lead in the 52nd minute but Patrik Schick gave Bayer a share of the spoils with the equalizer with 20 minutes remaining.
Union Berlin and VfL Wolfsburg played out a thrilling 2-2 draw with Wout Weghorst’s second half penalty rescuing a point for the visitors at Alte Foersterei.
Results
Friday
Borussia Moenchengladbach 3 – 2 Bayern Munich
Saturday
Bayer Leverkusen 1 – 1 Werder Bremen
Freiburg 5 – 0 1. FC Köln FT
Mainz 05 0 – 2 Eintracht Frankfurt
Schalke 04 4 – 0 Hoffenheim
Union Berlin 2 – 2 Wolfsburg
RasenBallsport Leipzig 1 – 3 Borussia Dortmund
