Borussia Dortmund 4 Borussia Monchengladbach 1: Aubameyang brace secures victory
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang netted a double as Borussia Dortmund edged closer to Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig with a comprehensive 4-1 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach.
Aubameyang moved three clear of Anthony Modeste in the Bundesliga scoring charts when he slotted in Dortmund’s fourth midway through the second half, at the culmination of an exquisite move from Thomas Tuchel’s side.
In a whirlwind start to Saturday’s clash at Signal Iduna Park, it had been Gladbach who took the advantage courtesy of Raffael’s opener.
Their lead lasted less than a minute, though – Aubameyang hauling Dortmund level before Lukasz Piszczek headed the hosts ahead.
Gladbach did test Dortmund after the restart, but their resolve was broken inside the last half an hour – Ousmane Dembele and Aubameyang capping a sparkling Dortmund performance, the latter netting his 15th top-flight goal of the season.
The result moves Dortmund up into fifth place, six points behind the joint league leaders, while Gladbach have now gone eight league games without a win.
Aubameyang went close as Dortmund started brightly, but the hosts found themselves behind six minutes in, Marc Bartra’s clearance falling to Raffael to drill in a strike from the edge of the box.
Gladbach’s lead was short-lived, however, as just 59 seconds after falling behind, Dortmund restored parity.
Marco Reus, making his first Bundesliga start of the campaign, was the architect with a neat flick to Aubameyang and the Gabon strike duly rounded off the move with a first-time effort that evaded the grasp of Yann Sommer.
And Dortmund wasted no time in completing the turnaround in the 15th minute, Piszczek on hand to nod in from close range after Bartra had helped on Dembele’s out-swinging corner.
Reus, who scored 36 goals in 97 Bundesliga appearances for Gladbach, looked set to extend Dortmund’s lead on the half-hour mark, only for Nico Elvedi to come to the visitors’ rescue with a superb last-ditch challenge – with Matthias Ginter volleying over from the resulting corner.
Dortmund maintained their momentum after the interval and Reus thought he had netted their third when he turned home Piszczek’s cross with a clever back-heel, but the Germany winger had strayed offside.
Reus almost cost his side the lead moments later, Raffael able to drive into Dortmund’s penalty area after cutting out the forward’s pass, but his cross was deflected wide by Sokratis Papastathopoulos.
Dortmund’s shaky defence was exposed again from the following corner, with Andreas Christensen able to steal in unmarked, only for the Chelsea loanee to direct his header over.
However, Dortmund had their third 64 minutes in, Dembele engineering space for himself in the area before slotting home in composed fashion.
Tuchel’s side were not finished there, though, and carved open Gladbach four minutes later – Dembele and Reus combining excellently to set-up Aubameyang, who duly converted from six-yards out.
Dortmund could have added further gloss to their victory late on, with Sommer denying substitute Christian Pulisic from point-blank range, but that that miss mattered little as Tuchel’s charges – beaten by Eintracht Frankfurt last time out – returned to winning ways in style.
