Giovanni Reyna made his return for Borussia Dortmund as they cut the points gap on the Bundesliga leaders, while Tyler Adams and RB Leipzig had a field day in their win over Greuther Furth.
Greuther Furth 1-6 RB Leipzig
Greuther Furth struck early, but RB Leipzig went on to hit six unanswered goals to come away with an emphatic win at Sportpark Ronhof Thomas Sommer.
Tyler Adams came off the bench for Leipzig to play the final12 minutes, completing all of his passing, as the game was already in hand. On the other side, Julian Green played the first half, completing 81 percent of his passes and winning five battles. Timothy Tillman came on for Green in the second, Completing 71 percent of his passes and winning one duel.
The hosts took the lead after four minutes of play when Jamie Leweling rumbled down the right side of the field and saw his centering pass blocked before taking matters into his own hands fired his shot into the goal.
Then Leipzig took over after the quarter-hour mark when Andre Silva headed in a cross from Angelino.
Emil Forsberg gave them the lead in the 32nd minute with a blistering strike from distance. That was followed two minutes later when Konrad Laimer finished off a counter-attack with a sublime chip over the goalkeeper.
Leipzig extended their lead further just before halftime when Benjamin Henrichs ran onto a cross from Angelino to guide the ball home.
The visitors kept the momentum going into the second half when they scored in the 58th minute. Mohamed Simakan was on the spot to head in Forsberg’s free-kick.
Christopher Nkunku rounded out the scoring in the 69th minute when Forsberg’s through ball allowed the Frenchman to slot it home.
The win moves Leipzig up to fourth place in the standing with 44 points, while Greuther Furth remains at the bottom with 14 points.
Borussia Dortmund 1-0 Arminia Bielefeld
Borussia Dortmund scored early in the first half and was able to hold on to the end to claim all three points in their win over Arminia Bielefeld at Signal Iduna Park to cut Bayern Munich’s lead at the top to seven points.
Giovanni Reyna made his return to the team after a two-week injury layoff to play the final 27 minutes, completing 94 percent of his passes and winning one duel. Lennard Maloney also saw action for BVB, playing five minutes and winning two duels. On the other side, George Bello made his first start for Arminia Bielefeld, completing 92 percent of his passes and winning two duels.
After going back-and-forth in the initial minutes, the hosts finally broke the deadlock in the 21st minute. Thorgan Hazard’s cross from the right side found Marius Wolf, who tapped the ball into the goal.
Dortmund was clearly the dominant side on the day and should have scored more as their opponents could not find a way to grab the equalizer. One of those chances came from Reyna in the 81st minute when Erling Haaland spotted his teammate making a run on the left and set him up for a chance at goal. However, Reyna’s effort went wide of the goal.
Reyna had another chance three minutes later when Maloney crossed the ball into the area for his fellow American, but his headed attempt went wide as well.
The win keeps BVB in second place in the standings with 53 points.
Notes
In other Bundesliga action, John Brooks went the distance for Wolfsburg as they fell in a narrow 3-2 loss to Freiburg.
Joe Scally and Borussia Monchegladbach got a morale-boosting 2-0 win over Hertha Berlin.
Justin Che watched on from the bench as Hoffenheim held leaders Bayern Munich to a 1-1 draw.
Tim Chandler was on the bench as Eintracht Frankfurt came away with a 2-1 win over Bochum.
In the 2. Bundesliga, Ryan Malone and Hansa Rostock came out on top over Nicolas Carrera and Holstein Kiel in a thrilling 3-2 win.
Down in the 3. Liga, Terrence Boyd was on the scoresheet as Kaiserslautern recorded a 3-0 win over Havelse.
Mael Corboz played 90 minutes for Verl while Justin Butler watched on from the bench for Waldhof Mannheim as the visitors came away with a 3-1 win.
Johan Gomez played a half for Zwickau while Andrew Wooten made his return for Osnabruck, playing the final six minutes, in their 3-1 win.
