Haaland hits two on return as Dortmund grab lead
BERLIN: Erling Haaland celebrated his successful return from injury with a pitch-invading fan after scoring two goals in a 3-1 win over Mainz on Saturday to send Borussia Dortmund top of the Bundesliga overnight.
Norwegian striker Haaland missed Dortmund’s last four games with a thigh complaint, but returned against Mainz to score his third brace in as many appearances and take his season tally to nine league goals.
The 21-year-old then delighted the home crowd even more by celebrating arm-in-arm with a supporter who had somehow made it onto the pitch, and handing him his jersey as a gift.
“Erling really wanted to play and he gave everything to be on the pitch today,” Dortmund coach Marco Rose told Sky.
“We really missed him, and it’s great that he scored two goals. That’s what he signed him for,” added Marco Reus.
Victory sent Dortmund top of the table, leapfrogging Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen, who were to meet last night, Thai time.
Reus smashed a brilliant half-volley into the top corner to give Dortmund the lead on three minutes, before Haaland coolly converted a penalty to double the lead after the break.
Jonathan Burkardt struck late on to give Mainz hope, but Haaland swept in a second in injury time to seal the win and continue Dortmund’s perfect home record this season.
Fellow top-four hopefuls RB Leipzig lost further ground on the leaders as they were held to a 1-1 draw away to unbeaten Freiburg.
Emil Forsberg converted a penalty just after the half-hour mark to give Leipzig the lead and become the first Bundesliga goalscorer in Freiburg’s new stadium.
Korean forward Jeong Woo-yeong levelled the scores with a header in the second half, however, as Leipzig dropped points for the fifth time this season to slip seven points behind Dortmund.
Leipzig also remain behind Freiburg and Union Berlin, who moved up to fifth with a 2-0 win over Wolfsburg.
Nigerian striker Taiwo Awoniyi was the match-winner in a hard-fought game for Union, firing them into the lead on 49 minutes before helping set up Sheraldo Becker’s 83rd-minute header to seal the win.
“He’s in incredible form this season, he is our life insurance,” said Union goalkeeper Andreas Luthe of Awoniyi.