Robert Lewandowski claimed his 12th goal in his last four games as Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich trounced second-placed Borussia Dortmund 5-1 to go seven points clear yesterday.
The Polish striker netted Bayern’s third and fourth goals at Munich’s Allianz Arena after Thomas Mueller’s double, including a first-half penalty, before Mario Gotze grabbed Bayern’s fifth to compound his former club’s misery.
“It’s a big win. It’s good to have a seven-point advantage and also to have won in the way we did,” Mueller said. “But we have to keep going and keep collecting points after the international break.”
Having sent Bundesliga records tumbling by scoring five in just nine minutes in the 5-1 thrashing of Wolfsburg less than two weeks ago, Lewandowski has scored in each game since, including a hat-trick in the 5-0 Uefa Champions League rout of Dynamo Zagreb.
Lewandowski is the Bundesliga’s top scorer with 12 goals with Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang just behind him with 10 in eight matches.
Dortmund suffered their first defeat in 15 games under coach Thomas Tuchel.
The gap between the chasing pack and Bayern already looks ominous with Pep Guardiola’s Bavarians hunting an unprecedented fourth straight league title. “We struggled in the first 15 minutes, but our third goal made the difference,” Guardiola said.
“We are very happy as we have beaten one of the best teams in Europe.”
Bayern have beaten last season’s runners-up Wolfsburg and Dortmund by the same heavy scoreline in recent weeks, and they are peerless in Germany.
Earlier, third-placed Schalke crashed to their first defeat in seven games with a 3-0 loss at home to Cologne, who took their chance to climb to fifth.
On Saturday, Borussia Monchengladbach continued their rise up the table and bounced back from their midweek Champions League defeat against Manchester City with a 2-0 win over Wolfsburg.
Goals by Norway midfielder Haavard Nordtvelt and French-born Guinean winger Ibrahima Traore left Gladbach 13th while Wolfsburg dropped to ninth.
Hertha Berlin went fourth with a 3-0 home win over Hamburg as Salomon Kalou gave the hosts a first-half lead, then Vedad Ibisevic netted twice.
Kevin Volland scored twice for Hoffenheim in their 2-2 draw at VfB Stuttgart, who went bottom despite Pirmin Schwegler scoring their 90th-minute equaliser.
Hanover won their first match of the season as they defeated Werder Bremen 1-0.
Bavaria’s Ingolstadt, who are in their debut Bundesliga season, defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 with late goals from Pascal Gross and Stefan Lex to take sixth spot.
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