Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s goal was enough for Borussia Dortmund to labor to a 1-0 win over bottom-of-the-table Hannover 96 and provisionally cut Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga lead to five points on Saturday.
Dortmund started brightly with Marco Reus forcing a brilliant save from Ron-Robert Zieler and then hitting the crossbar with a free-kick.
Hannover remained compact, though, forcing the home side to be patient in the face of their defensive setup.
Photo: AP
“We know that we can play better. We’ll happily take the three points, though,” Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel said.
Ilkay Gundogan fired over after the break, before Mkhitaryan finally scored in the 57th minute.
A Hannover attack broke down and the ball fell to Gundogan. He found Reus, who passed to Mkhitaryan. Marcel Schmelzer provided a dummy run on the left and Mkhitaryan, faced by a host of defenders backing off, saw his chance and let fly inside the right post.
“I got the ball from Marco Reus. I wanted to play a one-two, but then I saw there was a man behind. So I moved inside and wanted to shoot inside the far post, and I did it,” Mkhitaryan said.
The Armenian has 18 goals and 17 assists in 33 competitive games this season.
Hannover slumped to their seventh straight defeat and were seven points from safety.
“We weren’t rewarded, as is often the case, but we’ll keep going and get our reward,” Hannover coach Thomas Schaaf said.
Bundesliga top-scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang sat out the game for Dortmund due to a foot injury.
Bayern could restore their eight-point lead with a win at Augsburg yesterday.
Elsewhere on Saturday, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim drew 1-1 at Werder Bremen in Julian Nagelsmann’s first game in charge of the visitors.
The 28-year-old is the youngest coach ever in the Bundesliga and got off to a great start when Andrej Kramaric put his side ahead in the 10th minute.
However, Papy Djilobodji equalized three minutes later and Hoffenheim were left hanging on after Kramaric was sent off with a second yellow card in the 77th minute.
“From that point of view we can talk about a point won,” Nagelsmann said.
In other matches, VfB Stuttgart upset Hertha BSC 2-0, Bayer 04 Leverkusen took advantage of Hertha’s slip and defeated SV Darmstadt 98 2-1 to move third, while VfL Wolfsburg beat Ingolstadt 04 2-0 to end their seven-game run without a win.
Hosts Cologne defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 3-1 in the late game to leave the visiting side one point off the relegation zone.
Frankfurt talisman Alexander Meier scored in the 24th minute by deflecting Szabolcs Huszti’s shot, but Anthony Modeste was gifted the ball and he set up Yannick Gerhardt to equalize five minutes later.
Dominique Heintz put Cologne ahead with a header from a free-kick in the 57th minute, before Gerhardt returned the earlier favor for Modeste to wrap up the win in the 72nd.
In Stuttgart, Serey Die’s first Bundesliga goal put the hosts ahead in the 51st minute.
American defender John Anthony Brooks hit the post for Hertha five minutes later, but Filip Kostic sealed Stuttgart’s fifth straight win in the 84th minute.
“It doesn’t have to end, it can keep going,” said Stuttgart coach Juergen Kramny, whose side climbed to 10th after being bottom in mid-December.
Leverkusen came from behind to win in Darmstadt.
Sandro Wagner got the hosts off the mark in the 28th minute, but an own-goal from Aytac Sulu and a late strike by Julian Brandt gave the visitors the win.
In Wolfsburg, Daniel Caligiuri crossed with the outside of his boot for the in-rushing Julian Draxler to convert past Ingolstadt goalkeeper Ramazan Ozcan in the 29th minute and Robin Knoche made it 2-0 10 minutes later.
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