Gio Reyna earned his first start in a long while for Borussia Dortmund in their win over Werder Bremen, while it was a rude return for Pellegrino Matarazzo as he suffered his first defeat with John Brooks and Hoffenheim.
Werder Bremen 0-2 Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund extended their winning streak in the league to five games as they snatched all three points against Werder Bremen at the Weser Stadion.
Gio Reyna earned his first start this year for BVB, completing 93 percent of his passes, winning three duels, and making one tackle along with one shot.
The first half was quite entertaining despite the lack of goals as both sides had excellent chances to score.
As both sides came out for the second half, the visitors were determined to break the scoreless deadlock. They did so in the 67th minute when Jamie Bynoe-Gittens came off the bench to smash home a goal following some good link-up play with Nico Schlotterbeck.
Dortmund added an insurance goal in the 85th minute when Raphael Guerreiro played a through-ball to Julian Brandt, allowing the German midfielder to curl his shot around Bremen goalkeeper Jii Pavlenka.
The win leaves Borussia Dortmund in third place with 40 points, still three behind leaders Bayern Munich.
Hoffenheim 1-3 Bayer Leverkusen
Hoffenheim’s extended its winless run to 10 games as they were well beaten by Bayer Leverkusen at the PreZero Arena in Pellegrino Matarazzo‘s first game in charge of the team.
John Brooks went the distance for Hoffenheim, completing 89 percent of his passes, winning eight duels, and making two tackles in the loss.
Leverkusen took the lead after six minutes when Florian Wirtz teed up Robert Andrich for a shot just outside the box, and the midfielder’s effort paid off as the ball whizzed past Hoffenheim goalkeeper Oliver Baumann.
The visitors doubled their lead just minutes into the second half when Jeremy Frimpong roamed down the right side and sent a low cross to the center of the box for his teammate Moussa Diaby to finish off. They added a third nine minutes later through Adam Hlozek as he slotted the ball home thanks to another assist from Frimpong.
Stanley Nsoki scored a consolation goal for the hosts in the 77th minute, but they were clearly outplayed on the day, showing that Matarazzo will have a lot of work to do to get the team back on the right track.
Hoffenheim remains in 14th place in the standings with 19 points.
Notes
In other Bundesliga action, Joe Scally played 90 minutes before being removed in stoppage time as Borussia Monchengladbach was thrashed in a 4-1 defeat to Hertha Berlin.
Jordan Pefok came on to play 28 minutes for Union Berlin as they kept their winning ways going with a 2-1 win over RB Leipzig.
Kevin Paredes played 37 minutes as Wolfsburg shared the points with last-place Schalke following a 0-0 draw.
Tim Chandler had a spot on the bench for Eintracht Frankfurt for their 3-0 defeat to FC Cologne.
In the 2. Bundesliga, Terrence Boyd was unable to get on the scoresheet as Kaiserslautern saw their seven-game unbeaten streak come to an end following a 1-0 defeat to Fabian Hurzeler’s St. Pauli.
Lennard Maloney went the distance for Heidenheim as they surrendered a three-goal lead to share the points with Hamburg in a thrilling 3-3 draw.
Julian Green started and played the entire game while Maximilian Dietz watch on from the bench as Greuther Furth fell in a narrow 2-1 loss to Karlsruhe.
Both George Bello and Ryan Malone started for their respective teams as Hansa Rostock sealed a 1-0 win over Arminia Bielefeld.
Down in the 3. Liga, Isaiah Young started by was sent off in the 68th minute for two yellow cards, while Kevin Lankford came on to play the final eight minutes s Viktoria Cologne came away with a 1-0 win over Rot-Weiss Essen.
Jann George started and played 67 minutes for Bayreuth as they fought back but came up short in a 3-2 loss to Wehen Wiesbaden.
Mael Corboz went the distance for Verl in their 3-2 loss to Dynamo Dresden.
Both Nicolas Carrera and Johan Gomez started for Zwickau as they were thumped by Duisburg in a 4-0 defeat.
Jalen Hawkins played the entire second half for Ingolstadt in their 4-1 loss to Osnabruck.
