Haaland brace helps Dortmund to beat Fuerth 3-0
The Norwegian opened his account in the 33rd minute and then grabbed his 53rd league goal in 53 Bundesliga matches in the 82nd with a powerful header.
Published : Dec 16, 2021 06:49 IST
Borussia Dortmund's Erling Haaland scored once in either half to steer his team to a 3-0 victory over bottom club Greuther Fuerth on Wednesday and cut the gap to leader Bayern Munich to six points.
The Norwegian opened his account in the 33rd minute and then grabbed his 53rd league goal in 53 Bundesliga matches in the 82nd with a powerful header.
Dutchman Donyell Malen added a third with a smart finish at the far post in the 89th for his fifth goal in six games in all competitions.
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Dortmund is in second place on 34 points, with Bayern top on 40 following their 5-0 demolition of VfB Stuttgart on Tuesday.
"The performance was a lot of hard work. We had chances but we were a bit sloppy, not fresh enough," Dortmund coach Marco Rose said after his team's first win in the last three league games.
"We made too many mistakes, had some good phases and also had good chances. But overall it was not the performance we wanted. Everyone felt it."
"It was not a good game from us and expectations from us are high. But I hope the result is some consolation," Rose said.
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Fuerth, who got their first win of the season last week, kept the hosts at bay for about 25 minutes before a superb Haaland no-look pass found Thorgan Hazard whose one-touch finish went in but was ruled offside.
Haaland scored a little later with his well-struck penalty following a hand ball and could have added another goal minutes later but could not direct the ball into the net from eight metres. Fuerth almost scored with a sucker punch in the 38th but Cedric Itten's shot sailed just wide.
Haaland made sure of the three points, powering in a header from a Julian Brand free kick eight minutes from the end for his 13th league goal of the campaign before Malen's last-minute goal.