Dortmund stun Leverkusen 3-2 in German Bundesliga

Berlin, Feb 4 (IANS) Defending champions Dortmund overpowered second-placed Leverkusen 3-2 in a thrilling see-saw match while Monchengladbach lost to Nuremberg 1-2 to close the 20th round of German Bundesliga football.

Robert Lewandowski ensured the first home loss for Leverkusen and the takeover of second position, owing to his decider at the 63rd minute, Sunday night, reports Xinhua.

Leverkusen took over after kick off, but it was the visitors who broke the deadlock with three minutes into play. Dortmund’s Marco Reus seized a through ball by Robert Lewandowski to beat Leverkusen’s goalkeeper Bernd Leno with a lob.

Leverkusen responded with a frenetic attack, but in spite of that, the “Borussen” doubled their lead through Jakub Blaszczykowski, who converted a penalty after Leno had brought down Lewandowski inside the box at the 9th minute.

Both sides continued with their offensively minded strategies. Dortmund remained dangerous on counters while Leverkusen lurked for the gap.

After the break, Leverkusen set the pace to press the defending champions into defence. The “Werkself” were rewarded at the 58th minute when Stefan Reinartz poked home a Stefan Kieling build up play. The visitors were seemingly dazed as Leverkusen’s Reinartz nodded home the equalizer to restore parity four minutes later.

Dortmund answered one minute later when Lewandowski capitalized on a black out by Leverkusen’s defence to break through the tie. In addition, Leverkusen gave away a penalty at the 70th minute to give Dortmund a chance to re-establish their two-goal lead, but Leverkusen goalkeeper Leno denied Blaszczykowski’s second attempt from the spot.

Leverkusen suffered the fifth loss of the season to slip on third position with 37 points, while Dortmund climb to second place with 39 points, twelve points adrift of front runners Bayern Munich.

In Sunday’s other match, Nuremberg wrapped up a surprising 2-1 win over Monchengladbach.

Timmy Simons opened the scoring for the hosts with four minutes played following a converted penalty. Tomas Pekhart doubled the lead at the 30th minute. Monchengladbach were unable to turn around as Patrick Herrmann was only able to score the consolation at the 58th minute.