Borussia Dortmund 6 - 2 Bayer Leverkusen: Borussia Dortmund thrash Bayer Leverkusen to make it three wins in a row

Posted Sunday, March 05, 2017 by PA

Bundesliga top-scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struck twice as Borussia Dortmund recorded a third successive victory by thrashing Bayer Leverkusen 6-2.

Ousmane Dembele's opener and Aubameyang's first put Dortmund in control before Kevin Volland pulled one back for Leverkusen early in the second period.

Aubameyang restored the two-goal advantage with his 21st league strike of the season and, after the visitors once again halved the deficit through Wendell's free-kick, further goals from Christian Pulisic, Andre Schurrle and Raphael Guerreiro wrapped up victory to move Thomas Tuchel's third-placed side to within six points of second spot following RB Leipzig's draw at Augsburg on Friday night.

Dortmund's afternoon was soured slightly, however, as attacking midfielder Marco Reus was forced off with another injury problem.

The hosts, on the back of consecutive 3-0 victories over Wolfsburg and Freiburg, went ahead inside six minutes through French forward Dembele.

Lukasz Piszczek's ball into the box was only partially cleared and 19-year-old Dembele seized on the loose ball before sidestepping his man and slotting his seventh goal of the season into the bottom left corner from 18 yards.

The hosts did not have to wait long for another opportunity and they doubled their advantage with 27 minutes played.

Reus' out-swinging corner from the right was nodded down by defender Marc Bartra and, after the ball deflected off Leverkusen's Tin Jedvaj, Gabon international Aubameyang was on hand to blast into the top right corner from close range.

Dortmund then suffered a blow in the closing minutes of the first half as Reus, who has been restricted to just 15 appearances this season, limped off to be replaced by United States international Pulisic.

The hosts had been commanding in the first half but their advantage was halved within three minutes of the restart.

Forward Volland burst into the box on the left and, after holding off the challenge of Sokratis Papastathopoulos, he fired powerfully past goalkeeper Roman Burki at the near post.

Leverkusen were then fortunate not to be reduced to 10 men when Karim Bellarabi escaped a second yellow card following a late tackle on Dembele which angered Dortmund boss Tuchel.

Aubameyang headed in Dembele's looping cross to make it 3-1 in the 69th minute but Leverkusen hit back immediately as Brazilian Wendell curled a perfectly-placed free-kick into the top right corner five minutes later.

The visitors were unable to salvage anything from the game, though, as three further Dortmund goals put the result beyond doubt.

First, Erik Durm's pull-back was converted by Pulisic, before former Leverkusen man Schurrle, who had replaced Aubameyang minutes earlier, converted from the penalty spot after he was brought down by Wendell.

Portugal international full-back Guerreiro completed the scoring by firing home from close range in time added on.