Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struck twice on Tuesday as Borussia Dortmund romped to another big win with a 5-1 victory at VfL Wolfsburg to provisionally top the German Bundesliga.
Having hammered both Legia Warsaw and Darmstadt 6-0 in their previous matches, Thomas Tuchel’s Dortmund handed out another drubbing with Gonzalo Castro setting up two of their goals.
“Despite going 2-0 up early on, we were still made to suffer, but we got a grip and took our chances,” said Tuchel.
“It’s an unbelievable result, which we worked hard for, and we’re very happy.”
The thrashing left Dortmund top on goals scored, with nine points from a possible 12, but Bayern Munich were due to host Hertha Berlin later yesterday, and could lose their lead to Carlo Ancelotti’s men.
The only teams still with 100% records meet at Munich’s Allianz Arena as Hertha chase their first league win in Bavaria since 1977.
It was another bad night for Wolfsburg, who have won only once in four games so far, and new signing Mario Gomez.
The Germany striker has yet to score since joining from Fiorentina and was repeatedly denied by Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Burki.
“Our conversion of chances wasn’t good enough, we had five top chances in the first-half,” Gomez told Sky.
“I’m here to score goals and the fact that it didn’t work out again makes me sorry for the fans.”
Dortmund needed just four minutes to take the lead at the Volkswagen Arena when centre-back Marc Bartra threaded the ball through the Wolfsburg defence.
Portugal midfielder Raphael Guerreiro sprinted onto the perfect pass and drilled his shot inside the near post.
Dortmund doubled their lead on 17 minutes when Aubameyang looped his shot over Wolfsburg goalkeeper Koen Casteels.
But Wolfsburg dragged their way back into the match.
Burki blocked left-back Ricardo Rodriguez’s powerfully struck free-kick with half-time approaching and then Wolfsburg deservedly pulled a goal back just after the break.
Moments after Gomez was again denied by Burki’s point-blank save, Daniel Didavi met Paul Seguin’s superb cross and drilled his shot just inside the near post on 53 minutes.
But Dortmund hit their third five minutes later when Castro pulled two defenders out of position to allow winger Ousmane Dembele a simple tap-in.
Castro then sprinted into the area and squared to Aubameyang, who slid his shot inside the far post on 62 minutes, before Lukasz Piszczek added Dortmund’s fifth with a powerful header.
There were nervous moments before kick-off in Wolfsburg due to an announcement telling fans and players to urgently leave the stadium, but it was a false alarm.
Eintracht Frankfurt moved up to fourth with their third win from four games as defender David Abraham and Bastian Oczipka netted in their 2-0 victory at Ingolstadt.
Newly promoted Freiburg inflicted a third straight defeat on Hamburg, who are third from bottom, as ex-Bayern Munich striker Nils Petersen scored the only goal of the game.
Hoffenheim picked up a fourth draw after their Croatia striker Andrej Kramaric’s opener was cancelled out by Darmstadt’s Denys Oliinyk in the 92nd minute.