Borussia Dortmund’s miserable domestic season continued when they lost 1-0 at home to strugglers Hanover yesterday, their fourth Bundesliga defeat in a row.
Dortmund dominated the first hour but were foiled by Hanover keeper Ron-Robert Zieler before Hiroshi Kiyotake curled in a free-kick against the run of play.
In complete contrast to the scrappy game in Dortmund, Stuttgart squandered a 3-1 lead before bouncing back to beat Eintracht Frankfurt 5-4 in a nine-goal thriller to give coach Armin Veh a winning return to the Waldstadion.
Surprise package Hoffenheim stayed unbeaten and moved up to second when Kevin Volland’s second-half goal gave them a 1-0 win over promoted Paderborn while Hertha Berlin piled on the misery for Hamburg with a 3-0 win.
Borussia Dortmund’s domestic form has been a baffling contrast to their performances in the UEFA Champions League where they have won all three games without conceding a goal.
After beating Galatasaray 4-0 away on Wednesday, Hanover seemed the ideal opponents to help Dortmund revive their domestic form, having lost their last three games.
Dortmund took control and the breakthrough seemed imminent as Zieler pushed Henrikh Mkhitar-yan’s low shot around the post and tipped Mats Hummels’s header onto the crossbar in the opening 20 minutes.
Reus was agonisingly close either side of half-time before being denied by another Zieler save before Japan forward Kiyotake broke the deadlock at the other end in the 61st minute.
Dortmund lost their confidence, were frustrated by Hanover’s spoiling tactics and never looked like equalising even after visiting defender Ceyhun Gulselam was sent off after a second booking late in the game
The Frankfurt epic began with Alexander Madlung firing the hosts ahead before Martin Harnik struck twice in three minutes to give the visitors a 2-1 half-time lead.
Christian Gentner added a third only for Alex Meier, Stefan Aigner and Madlung to score in a nine-minute spell to put Ein-tracht 4-3 ahead.
Timo Werner levelled with eight minutes left before Gentner’s goal two minutes later gave Stuttgart their second win of the season, leaving them 14th with nine points.
Results
Augsburg vs Freiburg - 2-0
B. Dortmund vs Hanover - 0-1
B. Leverkusen vs Schalke - 1-0
E. Frankfurt vs Stuttgart - 4-5
Hertha Berlin vs Hamburg - 3-0
Hoffenheim vs Paderborn - 1-0
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| B. Munich | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 21 | 2 | 20 |
| Hoffenheim | 9 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 13 | 7 | 17 |
| B. M’gladbach | 8 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 12 | 4 | 16 |
| B. Leverkusen | 9 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 17 | 14 | 16 |
| Mainz | 8 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 12 | 7 | 14 |
| Wolfsburg | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 9 | 14 |
| Hanover | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 11 | 13 |
| Paderborn | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 12 | 12 |
| Augsburg | 9 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 11 | 11 | 12 |
| Cologne | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 12 |
| E. Frankfurt | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 17 | 18 | 12 |
| Schalke | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 13 | 13 | 11 |
| Hertha Berlin | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 16 | 11 |
| Stuttgart | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 14 | 19 | 9 |
| B. Dortmund | 9 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 15 | 7 |
| Hamburg | 9 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 12 | 6 |
| Freiburg | 9 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 14 | 5 |
| W. Bremen | 9 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 23 | 4 |
Playing today
Wolfsburg vs Mainz - 15.30
B. M’gladbach vs B. Munich - 17.30