Dramatic final day help Dortmund seal CL spot
Berlin, May 21: PierreEmerick Aubameyang scored twice in Borussia Dortmund’s 4-3 win over Werder Bremen on Saturday to finish as the Bundesliga’s top-scorer and seal his side’s direct Champions League place on a dramatic final day of the season.
Werder took the lead when Zlatko Junuzovic stabbed home from close range, but Reus equalised with half an hour gone.
Aubameyang scored his 30th league goal — arguably his best this season — with a superb volley from a deft chip to Ousmane Dembele over the Bremen defence on 42 minutes.
However, less than a minute into the second half, Fin Bartels slammed home after a great run from Max Kruse to make the score 2-2. Kruse then chipped home Bremen’s third goal on 68 minutes.
Marco Reus and Aubameyang both converted second-half penalties to seal Borussia’s comeback win.
Aubameyang finished with 31 goals, one more than Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, who failed to score in the champions’ 4-1 home win over Freiburg.
Arjen Robben, Arturo Vidal, Franck Ribery and Joshua Kimmich got on the scoresheet for the hosts, while Nils Petersen came on to claim Freiburg’s consolation and set a new record of 19 league goals off the bench.
There was drama at the bottom of the table as Hamburg guaranteed their survival with an 88th-minute goal to seal a 2-1 win over Wolfsburg, which lifted them to 14th and dropped Wolfsburg to 16th. The 2009 German champions now face a two-legged relegation play-off to stay up.
Second-placed RB Leipzig finished their first season in Germany’s top-flight with a 2-2 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt. Results: Bayern Munich 4 (Robben 4, Vidal 73, Ribery 90+1, Kimmich 90+4) Freiburg 1 (Petersen 76); Borussia Dortmund 4 (Reus 32, 75-pen, Aubameyang 42, 89-pen) Werder Bremen 3 (Junuzovic 7, Bartels 46, Kruse 68); Borussia Moenchengladbach 2 (Hazard 50, Raffael 65) Darmstadt 2 (Schipplock 62, Heller 90); Hertha Berlin 2 (Weiser 71, Allagui 86pen) Bayer Leverkusen 6 (Chicharito 5, Havertz 31, 45+1, Kiessling 64, Aranguiz 81-pen, Pohjanpalo 90); Cologne 2 (Hector 43, Osako 87) Mainz 0; Hamburg 2 (Knoche 23, Waldschmidt 88) Wolfsburg 1 (Kostic 32); Ingolstadt 1 (Gross 41-pen) Schalke 1 (Avdijaj 2); Hoffenheim 0 Augsburg 0; E. Frankfurt 2 (Vallejo 83, Blum 90) RB Leipzig 2 (Sabitzer 25, Poulsen 56)