Wolfsburg rout Bremen in eight-goal thriller
VfL Wolfsburg cemented second place in the Bundesliga on Sunday with a 5-3 thumping of Werder Bremen with Bas Dost taking his tally to 11 goals in six games.
Wolves’ Dutch striker Dost is on an incredible scoring run with nine goals in his last four league games and two in as many Europa League games.
Bremen suffered their first defeat of 2015 after a fairytale run of five previous wins and a draw has taken them from last to ninth in Germany’s top flight.
“We always belived in the win. We have repeatedly proven we can always come back quickly,” said Dost, who scored four goals in Wolves’ 5-4 win at Bayer Leverkusen a fortnight ago.
The game at Werder’s Weserstadion began at a frantic pace as the scores stood at 2-2 with 18 minutes gone.
Bremen took a half-time lead after an own-goal from Wolves’ Portugal midfielder Vieirinha from a shot by Werder’s Felix Kroos, brother of Germany star Toni.
Dost then played a part in Wolves’ three second-half goals, netting in the 47th and 50th minutes before giving Daniel Caligiuri a simple tap-in.
The weekend’s results mean the league’s top three have a settled look about them with three months left of the season.
Leaders Bayern remain eight points clear, while Wolfsburg appear just as unlikely to be caught with a ten-point lead over Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Gladbach cemented third with a 2-0 win at home to relegation-threatened Paderborn with goals either side of half-time by USA international Fabian Johnson and Patrick Herrmann.
On Saturday, Gabon’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang played Borussia Dortmund’s ‘superhero’ by scoring their opening goal in the 3-0 home win over Schalke 04 in the Ruhr Valley derby.
Dortmund are tenth after picking up their fourth consecutive league win having started February bottom of the table.
Aubameyang claimed his fifth goal in as many league games on 78 minutes and celebrated by donning a ‘Batman’ hat, playing up to his ‘caped crusader’ nickname, which earned him a booking.
Team-mate Marco Reus wore a ‘Robin’ mask to play his side-kick.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Reus added Dortmund’s goals as Borussia created 31 shots on goals compared to Schalke’s meagre three.
The defeat drops Schalke, who were missing several stars with injury, to fifth while neighbours Dortmund are now just eight points adrift of a Champions League place for next season.
Bayer Leverkusen built on their shock Champions League win over Atletico Madrid on Wednesday with a 1-0 win at home to strugglers Freiburg to go fourth.
Veteran midfielder Simon Rolfes, who will retire at the end of the season, grabbed a first-half winner to give Leverkusen their first league win in four games.
Augsburg dropped to sixth after their 1-0 defeat at Hertha Berlin as ex-Chelsea striker Salomon Kalou scored a late winner at the Olympic Stadium to claim his sixth goal of the season.
Stuttgart stay bottom after their 1-1 draw at Hanover 96 while Hoffenheim are two points from a European place after their 2-0 win at home to Mainz.
Ten-man Hamburg drop back to just above the relegation places after their 2-1 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt.
On Friday, Bayern Munich celebrated their 115th birthday with a 4-1 win over Cologne to go 11 points clear at Munich’s Allianz Arena.
Arjen Robben netted his 17th goal in 19 league matches this season with a crisp header with 20 minutes left to remain the league’s top scorer.
Captain Bastian Schweinsteiger and Franck Ribery put Bayern 2-0 up inside 10 minutes.
Nigeria international Anthony Ujah scored for Cologne just before half-time before Robben and Robert Lewandowski extended Bayern’s lead.