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| Marco Reus of Borussia Dortmund dribbles with the ball during the Bundesliga match between Borussia Dortmund and 1. FC Koln at the Signal Iduna Park on March 18, 2023 in Dortmund, Germany. |
Borussia Dortmund have powered to the top of the Bundesliga – for a day at least – after four well-worked team goals set up a 6-1 home thumping of faltering Cologne.
Bayern Munich can reclaim first place on Sunday with a point at Bayer Leverkusen, but Dortmund made sure they headed into the international break in great spirits thanks to first-half goals from Raphael Guerreiro, Sebastien Haller, Marco Reus and Donyell Malen.
In the second half, Haller had a tap-in before Reus struck the sixth.
“We started well and had good control of the game,” Reus told Sky after his 150th Bundesliga goal on Saturday.
“I would happily end my career here, I feel great here.”
Dortmund surged eight points above Leipzig and one ahead of Bayern after a quick-fire double started their rout.
Portugal’s versatile Guerreiro played in midfeld rather than left back and struck on 15 minutes after Malen’s clever nutmeg.
Forward Haller soon fired in after Reus’ clever flick and Reus himself made it 3-0 after just 32 minutes with another team goal.
A fourth followed from Malen four minutes later. Defender Niklas Sule – left out of the current Germany squad – produced a superb pass to release the Dutch winger, but he still had lots to do.
Davie Selke got Cologne on the scoresheet before halftime but the game was already over.
Haller grabbed his second of the match and third since returning from cancer treatment after Mahmoud Dahoud’s free-kick came back off the bar, just before Reus added the gloss.
Hoffenheim earlier lifted themselves off the bottom with a 3-1 win over fellow strugglers Hertha Berlin, ending a run of seven straight defeats and recording their first win in 15 games since October 14.
Striker Andrej Kramaric scored two first-half penalties and Ihlas Bebou struck on 51 minutes as the hosts moved out of the drop zone to 15th, with Hertha slipping into the relegation play-off spot.
VfB Stuttgart replaced Hoffenheim at the bottom after their former player Omar Marmoush netted in a 1-0 defeat at home to Wolfsburg, while second-bottom Schalke scored a controversial penalty in stoppage time for a 1-1 draw at 10-man Augsburg.
Bochum sit three points above Hoffenheim and four above Hertha in a packed lower half thanks to a lucky 1-0 win at home to third-placed RB Leipzig, whose Champions League qualification hopes took a knock as a painful week after the thrashing by Manchester City got worse.
