30th matchday
Berlin (dpa) – Thanks to five goals within 14 minutes, Borussia Dortmund is almost certain to qualify for the Champions League.
BVB won 6-1 (5-0) against VfL Wolfsburg, with four games remaining, the lead over fifth-placed SC Freiburg is twelve points. The sports club won 3-0 (2-0) against VfL Bochum.
In the fight against relegation, Hertha BSC made up a place by beating FC Augsburg 1-0 (0-0) and left the relegation rank that VfB Stuttgart now occupies. The Swabians couldn’t get past a 0-0 draw at FSV Mainz 05.
Cologne wins the derby
1. FC Köln impressively underlined its European ambitions – and that in the Rhenish derby against rival Borussia Mönchengladbach. Coach Steffen Baumgart’s team prevailed in the evening and earned 3-1 (3-0). Antony Modeste (5th), Florian Kainz (20th) and Dejan Ljubicic (34th) shot out the clear lead in front of 59,724 spectators in the sold-out Borussia Park. Breel Embolo (85th) only managed to improve the result for Gladbach in the final phase. Due to the success, the Cologne team moved up to sixth place in the table at least until Sunday.
Bundesliga debutant Tom Rothe scored for BVB in the 24th minute, the 17-year-old was celebrated by his team-mates. The U19 national player switched to BVB from the FC St. Pauli youth team last summer and is now the fourth youngest goalscorer in the Bundesliga.
Axel Witsel (26th), Manuel Akanji (28th), Emre Can (35th) and Erling Haaland (38th) were successful a little later – BVB scored for the first time since April 13, 2013 (then at SpVgg Greuther Fürth) five goals before the break. Haaland, whose future is still being speculated about, scored again after the change (54th). Ridle Baku (81st) scored late for Wolfsburg.
Double red for Bochum
Freiburg took the lead through Lukas Kübler (5th), Roland Sallai (16th) followed suit early on before he also scored in the second half to make it 3-0 (53rd). Bochum’s Konstantinos Stafylidis saw the red card after a hard foul on Sallai (68th). VfL coach Thomas Reis was also given a red card by referee Sascha Stegemann and was sent to the stands (70′).
Suat Serdar (49th) scored for Berlin after submitting the former Augsburg Marco Richter. The 24-year-old assist provider saw his fifth yellow card (65th) in the heated game and will miss Hertha next weekend against Stuttgart.