Borussia Dortmund kept up the chase on Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich when a moment of inspiration from Henrikh Mkhitaryan secured a 1-0 win over stubborn Hanover yesterday.

At the other end of the table, Julian Nagelsmann, at 28 the Bundesliga’s youngest-ever coach, made his debut on the Hoffenheim bench and watched his side draw 1-1 at Werder Bremen in a crunch relegation battle.

Bayer Leverkusen moved into third when they came from behind to beat Darmstadt 2-1 and Hertha Berlin lost 2-0 at Stuttgart.

Second-placed Dortmund are five points behind champions Bayern, who visit Augsburg today.

Leverkusen are a further 13 points behind in third, ahead of Hertha on goal difference.

Dortmund created numerous chances but had to wait until the 57th minute to break the deadlock.

Without the league’s top scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mar-co Reus was moved into the most advanced position in the Dortmund team.

It was he who forced Ron-Robert Zieler into making a reflex save before he smashed a free-kick against the crossbar in a bright opening for Dortmund.

Andre Hoffmann nearly stunned the hosts with Hanover’s first attempt on goal, which Roman Burki somehow managed to scramble away for a corner.

That was as close as Hanover came to beating Burki as the home team continued to do all of the attacking.

They finally broke the deadlock on a counter-attack, with Mkhitaryan leading the ball forward and picking his spot in the corner of Zieler’s goal from just outside the penalty area.

It was enough to send Hanover spiralling to a seventh straight defeat, and their fourth since Thomas Schaaf took charge.

Results
B. Dortmund vs Hanover - 1-0
Cologne vs E. Frankfurt -3-1
Darmstadt vs B. Leverkusen -1-2
Stuttgart vs Hertha Berlin -2-0
Werder Bremen vs Hoffenheim - 1-1
Wolfsburg vs Ingolstadt - 2-0

Playing today
Hamburg vs B. M’gladbach - 15.30
Augsburg vs Bayern Munich - 17.30

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