Borussia Dortmund Stretch Lead With Win Over Hannover 96, Stuttgart Hit Werder Bremen For Six

First-place Borussia Dortmund extended their lead at the top of the Bundesliga to four points with a 4-0 win over Hannover 96 courtesy of a classy and ruthless display at the AWD-Arena. The visitors started off on the front foot and were ahead after just eleven minutes as Nuri Sahin slipped a pass in to Shinji Kagawa, who pulled the ball past two defenders and hammered his shot past Florian Fromlowitz. BVB were in control for most of the first half, and Hannover struggled to create any shooting opportunities.

The tone changed slightly in the second half, and Hannover began to look more threatening as Dortmund lost their grip on the match. However, just as Hannover had started to take control, Dortmund doubled their advantage. Another good pass from Sahin set Lukasz Piszczek free on the right and he drilled the ball across the face of goal for Lucas Barrios to tap in for 2-0. Hannover were shocked, and Dortmund were back in command. The hosts’ problems were compounded minutes later as Karim Haggui kicked Jakub Blaszczykowski in the head while the Polish winger was lying on the pitch in the penalty area. The referee, Mr. Felix Brych, sent off Haggui and awarded Dortmund a penalty for the offence. Sahin stepped up to take the spot-kick, but his weak effort was saved by Fromlowitz.

The missed opportunity (the second time in succession Sahin has had a penalty saved) proved inconsequential for BVB as they added a third just minutes later. Fantastic interplay from Robert Lewandowski (who had come on for Lucas Barrios) and Kuba put the latter one-on-one with Fromlowitz, who parried Kuba’s shot but could not prevent Lewandowski from acrobatically volleying in the rebound. Hannover were long since finished by this stage, and Antonio da Silva nearly added a fourth with a well-struck free-kick to the top corner, but his effort was brilliantly saved by Fromlowitz. The Hannover goalkeeper, though, would have no reply in stoppage time as BVB broke at breathtaking pace; da Silva found Kuba open on the right with a magnificent pass after a Hannover free-kick. This time the Pole was not to be denied as he hammered his shot in for a glorious fourth, cementing Dortmund’s place as clear title favourites.

There were yet more goals in store in the two late kickoffs; Stuttgart demolished a woeful Werder Bremen 6-0 and Bayer Leverkusen came back from a goal down to beat Kaiserslautern 3-1. Die Schwaben took the lead on ten minutes, Timo Gebhart setting up Ciprian Marica for a shot from just inside the box. After some mixed exchanges, Bremen won a penalty as Sven Ulreich blocked Aaron Hunt’s run in the box. Torsten Frings took up the responsibility, but Ulreich saved his shot to swing the momentum back to the hosts. They took full advantage before the break as Cacau scored twice in the final fifteen minutes of the first half. Stuttgart dominated after the interval, with Christian Gentner, Georg Niedermeier, and Arthur Boka all getting on the score-sheet - they could even afford a penalty miss by Cacau (the fourth penalty that was not converted this weekend). In Leverkusen, strikes in either half from Sidney Sam and a Patrick Helmes goal gave Bayer the victory after Florian Dick had given ‘Lautern an early lead. Stuttgart’s win pulled them out of the relegation zone into 14th (with a positive goal difference) while Leverkusen are now up to third, just three points behind Mainz 05.