Dortmund, Germany – Marco Reus turned out a superb performance at Signal Iduna Park on Saturday to get Borussia Dortmund back on track in league play with a 3-0 defeat of Eintracht Frankfurt.
Dortmund saw its four-game winning run in Bundesliga play come to an end in its last outing as it was thrashed in a 4-1 home loss by Hamburg.
But Reus helped get Dortmund back in the win column this weekend by scoring all three goals in the club's comfortable victory over Eintracht.
Reus opened the scoring in the eighth minute before immediately doubling his tally less than a minute later.
The visitors thought they could get back into the match when Dortmund's Julian Schieber was sent off in the 31st minute, but Reus quelled any speculation of an Eintracht comeback when he completed his hat trick in the 65th minute.
Takashi Inui made matters worse for Eintracht as he was sent off nine minutes later, leaving the visitors with no way back.
Dortmund climbs back into second place in the Bundesliga with 42 points, moving five points clear of fourth-place Eintracht.
Bayer Leverkusen 2, Augsburg 1
Leverkusen, Germany - Bayer Leverkusen got back to winning ways on Saturday as it earned a 2-1 win over Augsburg at the BayArena.
The club came into the match riding a three-game winless run in league play, but Stefan Kiessling and Lars Bender chipped in with a goal apiece to give Leverkusen the lead with 15 minutes to play. Sascha Molders pulled one back for Augsburg in the 89th minute, but it proved to be nothing more than a consolation goal.
Leverkusen improves to 41 points to move to within 16 points of first-place Bayern Munich. Augsburg's four-game unbeaten run comes to an end as the club remains second from bottom in the table on 15 points for the season.
Freiburg 3, Werder Bremen 2
Bremen, Germany - A brace from Nils Petersen was not enough for Werder Bremen to salvage a point as the club surrendered three goals in a 3-2 defeat to Freiburg at the Weserstadion on Saturday.
Max Kruse opened the scoring for Freiburg in the 36th minute only to see his goal canceled out by Petersen three minutes later.
Petersen equalized once more in the match following Daniel Caligiuri's penalty in the 54th minute, but Matthias Ginter popped up with the game-winning goal in the 71st minute to send Freiburg into fifth place with 34 points on the season. Bremen's two-game winning run comes to an end as the club stays put on 28 points.
Hamburg 1, Monchengladbach 0
Hamburg, Germany - Hamburg claimed a second successive Bundesliga win on Saturday, earning a 1-0 win over Monchengladbach at the Imtech Arena.
Rafael Van der Vaart produced the lone goal of the match as the Dutchman scored in the 24th minute with his second league goal for the club this term.
Hamburg has won three of its last four league games to climb to 34 points on the season, four points better than Monchengladbach, which has claimed just one point from its last three league outings.
Dusseldorf 1, Greuther Furth 0
Dusseldorf, Germany - Dusseldorf pulled further away from the relegation zone on Saturday by taking maximum points with its 1-0 defeat of Greuther Furth at the Esprit Arena.
It looked as if it would be a long day for Dusseldorf after Dani Schahin failed to convert a penalty kick early on, but Axel Bellinghausen scored in the 18th minute to hand the home side the lead. Jozsef Varga's sending off in the 38th minute allowed Dusseldorf to finish the match with a man advantage, helping the club improve to 27 points to go 11 points clear of the drop zone.
Greuther Furth, dropping its Bundesliga-leading 14th match of the season, remains bottom of the table on 12 points.
Mainz 2, Schalke 2
Mainz, Germany - Michel Bastos continued his sensational start to life in Germany as he bagged a brace on Saturday to help Schalke take a point in a 2-2 draw with Mainz.
The Brazilian has now scored three goals in three appearances since making the move to Schalke from Lyon in the January transfer window. His goals in the 41st and 82nd minutes helped equalize for the visitors after Andreas Ivanschitz and Zdenek Pospech had put Mainz in front with goals in the 27th and 63rd minutes.
The draw sees the two clubs remain separated by two points as Mainz sits seventh in the league on 32 points, one spot above Schalke.
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