Dortmund see off Stuttgart, Augsburg hold Wolfsburg
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| AFP |
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang netted twice on Sunday as second-placed Borussia Dortmund returned to winning ways with a 4-1 win at home to Stuttgart, despite dropping captain Mats Hummels. Gabon striker Aubameyang cemented his status as the Bundesliga's top scorer with his 16th and 17th league goals in 14 games this season after Gonzalo Castro had headed Borussia into an early lead.
Daniel Didavi pulled a goal back for strugglers Stuttgart with half-time approaching. But a Georg Niedermeier own-goal left the visitors 3-1 down before Aubameyang grabbed their superb fourth goal and his second to inflict a third straight defeat on Stuttgart.
"That was a tough piece of work," admitted Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel. "We didn't play that well in the first half, but we were much better after the break. We stopped them having any shots on goal and could have won by more, so all in all it was a deserved win."
Hummels found himself on the bench at Dortmund's Signal Iduna Park in the wake of poor performances. He scored an own goal in Dortmund's shock 3-1 defeat at Hamburg ten days ago in the Bundesliga, then conceded the penalty which sealed their 1-0 defeat on Thursday at Russia's FK Krasnodar in the UEFA Europa League group stages.
The 26-year-old came on for the final ten minutes against Stuttgart for Germany winger Marco Reus with Dortmund 3-1 up. Stuttgart's caretaker coach Jurgen Kramny got off to a losing start after replacing Alexander Zorniger in the wake of last weekend's 4-0 thumping at home to Augsburg and the defeat left his side second from bottom.
Third-placed Wolfsburg, who had Brazil defender Dante sent off, are now seven points behind Borussia after their goalless draw at strugglers Augsburg. Both Schalke and Bayer Leverkusen lost ground behind the league leaders Bayern Munich after taking a point each in their 1-1 draw as Eric Choupo-Moting's goal for Schalke was cancelled out by a late Sascha Riether own goal. Both clubs are now 19 points behind Pep Guardiola's Bavarian giants.