Dortmund Beat Wolfsburg To Close In On Bayern Ahead Of Title Showdown
By AFP
Borussia Dortmund warmed up for Tuesday’s top-of-the-table clash against Bayern Munich with a 2-0 win at Wolfsburg on the second weekend of the Bundesliga’s restart after the coronavirus-enforced suspension.
On Tuesday, Dortmund host defending champions Bayern, who were facing Eintracht Frankfurt later on Saturday.
Dortmund coach Lucien Favre said the lack of fans’ noise in the stadium helped him give instructions.
“I think it’s positive that the players can now hear me better in the stadium,” said Dortmund’s Swiss coach, whose calls echoed around the empty terraces.
“Normally only my wide players can understand me.”
This was the second weekend of the Bundesliga’s restart, following a two-month hiatus, as the first top European league to resume during the pandemic.
A minute’s silence was held before the afternoon’s four matches to remember the victims of COVID-19, which has so far claimed 8,216 lives in Germany.
In Wolfsburg, Portugal winger Guerreiro, who netted twice in last week’s 4-0 derby thrashing of Schalke, opened the scoring in the 32nd minute.
Erling Braut Haaland, who had scored 10 goals in nine league games since joining in January from Red Bull Salzburg, mistimed his attempt to meet a cross, but Guerreiro was on hand to tap home.
Dortmund had a let-off early in the second-half when Wolfsburg winger Renato Steffen clipped the crossbar.
England winger Jadon Sancho helped sealed the win when he dribbled at the Wolfsburg defence, then laid a pass off to Hakimi, who fired home 12 minutes from time.
In the final minutes, Wolfsburg had replacement Felix Klaus sent off for fouling Hakimi.
“We showed right after the start of the match that we wanted to win,” added Favre.
