Borussia Dortmund opened up a 15-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga on Friday night with a 1-0 home win against Cologne to take another step closer to the German league title.
Poland striker Robert Lewandowski’s 44th-minute strike proved to be enough to give Dortmund their 19th win of the season from 25 games.
With nine matches left to play, Jurgen Klopp’s team are cruising toward their first league title since 2002 and a Champions League place next season.
“This was probably one of the most deserved 1-0 wins of all times,” Klopp said after his side laid siege to the Cologne goal in the second half. “The boys created so many chances over the 90 minutes. The fact that things worked out this way is unbelievable. The team is continuing to take these little steps [toward the title]. Robert Lewandowski is a great lad, I am sincerely pleased for him that he scored the winner, that is another feather in his cap.”
Lewandowski opened the scoring when he chested down the ball from a long pass and slammed it into the bottom far corner just before the halftime break to put his team in control.
Despite missing last week with a knee injury, Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller produced several good saves, especially in the first half, to keep Cologne out.
Dortmund’s reserve goalkeeper, Australian Mitchell Langerak, who produced a stellar performance in Munich last week in the 3-1 win over defending champions Bayern, was relegated back to the bench.
Cologne’s former Bayern goalkeeper Michael Rensing had a busy second half as he denied Lewandowski, only for Dortmund striker Lucas Barrios to then hit the crossbar — for the eighth time this season — with under 15 minutes left.
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