BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund won 2-0 at Freiburg to get its Bundesliga title defense back on track in difficult conditions yesterday.
Heavy snowfall hampered both teams’ efforts in a hard-fought game. Neven Subotic scored in the 54th minute and Mario Goetze made the game safe for Dortmund with seven minutes remaining.
Jefferson Farfan’s 77th-minute strike was enough for Schalke to complete a perfect week with a 1-0 win at home over Nuremberg. Schalke won the Ruhr derby against Dortmund last weekend and won 2-0 at Arsenal in the Champions League midweek.
Wolfsburg beat Fortuna Duesseldorf 4-1 away, in interim coach Lorenz-Guenther Koestner’s first game in charge following Felix Magath’s departure on Thursday.
Mainz beat Hoffenheim 3-0 thanks to an Adam Szalai hat trick. Greuther Fuerth drew 1-1 at home with Werder Bremen.
Dortmund’s first away win of the season leaves it nine points behind Bayern Munich, which plays its game in hand against Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday.
Freiburg came closest to scoring in a scrappy first half, when Subotic made a crucial clearance to concede a corner that caused panic in the Dortmund defense in the 15th.
Daniel Caligiuri was twice blocked, and then Marcel Schmelzer got the slightest touch to the ball with his studs to push Erik Jendrisek’s effort onto the post.
Subotic made the breakthrough with a header from a dangerous Marco Reus free kick, and the game was settled when Robert Lewandowski set up Goetze for a low shot past Oliver Baumann.
Schalke goalkeeper Lars Unnerstall denied Hiroshi Kiyotake with a flying save just seconds after kickoff in Gelsenkirchen.
The home side had almost twice as many efforts, however, with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar having five shots on goal alone.
Farfan scored with a crisp volley across goal after Christian Fuchs picked out the Peru winger with a precise cross from the left.
Dutch striker Bas Dost ended Wolfsburg’s longest streak in the Bundesliga without a goal (457 minutes), when he opened the scoring five minutes into the second half at Duesseldorf with a tap-in from Ivica Olic’s cross.
Diego crossed for Olic to make it 2-0 three minutes later, and Dost claimed his second goal in the 64th.
Jens Langeneke gave the home fans some hope in the 69th with a penalty Olic conceded by fouling Oliver Fink, but it didn’t last long.
Fink was sent off eight minutes later for bringing down Diego in the penalty area, and the Brazilian duly converted the spot kick.
Hoffenheim goalkeeper Tim Wiese endured another afternoon to forget in Mainz.
Hungary striker Szalai opening the scoring in the 21st, adding another seconds after the restart, and then claiming his seventh of the season in the 64th.
Hoffenheim has yet to win with Wiese in the side. The former Germany goalkeeper has conceded 21 goals in six competitive games since moving from Werder Bremen.
Edu scored Fuerth’s first goal at home in the Bundesliga in the eighth minute, but Bremen deservedly equalized one minute before the break through Nils Peterson.
Today, Eintracht Frankfurt visits Stuttgart and Hannover hosts Borussia Moenchengladbach today.
Hamburger SV got the ninth round underway on Friday with a 2-0 win at Augsburg.
Borussia Dortmund, Schalke both win in Bundesliga
