Berlin, March 14 (IANS) Marco Reus and Shinji Kagawa scored to give Dortmund a 2-0 win over Mainz while Leverkusen returned to winning track thanks to Albin Ekdal’s own goal in their respective German Bundesliga matches.
Second placed Dortmund remain in hot pursuit of front-runners Bayern Munich after beating Mainz thanks to the goals from Reus and Kagawa with 81,000 spectators at Signal-Iduna Park on Snday, reports Xinhua.
Mainz, who flabbergasted leaders Bayern Munich only recently, were able to hold Dortmund’s pace in the first 20 minutes, but from then on Dortmund put Mainz defense under pressure.
Marcel Schmelzer unleashed the first dangerous shot on target before Reus opened the scoring with 30 minutes played. Gonzalo Castro created the solid groundwork after dancing from the midfield, through Mainz defense to pass the ball to Reus, who had no problems to slot it into far post corner from the edge of the box.
The hosts dictated the pace but wasted a number of promising chances. Especially top scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang lacked accuracy as Mainz keeper Loris Karius defused three attempts on target by the Gabon international.
Reus missed another opportunity before Kagawa secured the triumph utilizing a square pass by Aubameyang to make it 2-0 with 17 minutes to play.
With the result, the “BVB” remain eight points adrift of leaders Bayern Munich while Mainz slipped from the 5th to the 6th position after suffering the 10th loss of the season.
Elsewhere, Bayer Leverkusen saw a 1-0 win after capitalizing the own goal by Hamburg’s Albin Ekdal with 18 minutes into the game. It is the first win for Roger Schmidt’s team in the last five rounds in Bundesliga.
Hamburg slumped to the 12th place while Bayer Leverkusen climbed to the 7th place, just one point away from the Bundesliga’s top six and a berth for the UEFA Europa League.
