Borussia Dortmund crushed bottom-placed Augsburg 5-1 on Sunday, with a hat-trick from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, to cut the gap to leaders Bayern Munich back to seven points.
The Gabon international, who now has 13 goals in 10 matches and is joint top scorer with Robert Lewandowski of Bayern Munich, grabbed two goals late in the game after putting his side in the lead in the 18th minute.
Marco Reus, continuing his revival after an injury-hit start to the season, struck twice, including two minutes after Aubameyang’s first goal to take his tally to five goals.
Photo: AFP
Augsburg, in last place on five points, briefly cut the deficit early in the second half with their first chance of the game when Raul Bobadilla headed in a corner, but they could do nothing to stop Shinji Kagawa, a whirlwind in midfield, who provided three assists.
Aubameyang, who also scored a hat-trick in the UEFA Europa League at FK Qabala in midweek, restored their three-goal lead in the 85th minute, slipping in to turn an Adrian Ramos shot into the net and then chipping in his third in stoppage-time for a hat-trick.
“I made a bet with my family yesterday that I would score three goals,” Aubameyang said.
“It’s great it worked out, but much more important is the fact we got the three points and Marco is back as well. He scored two and I am so happy. He is such an important player for us,” he added.
In the late match, Borussia Moenchengladbach beat third-placed Schalke 04 3-1 to make it five wins in a row under coach Andre Schubert and continue their explosive rise up the table to seventh place, four behind their opponents.
Moenchengladbach, who had lost their first five matches of the season before the departure of coach Lucien Favre, took the lead when Lars Stindl’s penalty was saved by Ralf Faehrmann, but the midfielder beat defender Benedikt Hoewedes to head in.
Schalke leveled on the stroke of halftime when Moenchengladbach’s Andreas Christensen intercepted a Max Meyer cutback, only to score an own-goal.
The visitors stepped on the gas after the break and came agonizingly close with attempts by Leroy Sane and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, before Moenchengladbach struck again with Raffael’s outstanding free-kick floating over the wall and past Faehrmann in the 70th minute.
Schalke were then left with 10 men when Johannes Geis was sent off for a studs-up challenge on Andre Hahn, who had to be carried off, and Moenchengladbach struck once more through Julian Korb to protect their perfect record under Schubert.
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