BERLIN: Borussia Dortm­und scored four times in the last 25 minutes to come from two goals down and beat Bayer Leverkusen 4-2 on Saturday to climb top of the the Bundesliga.

Goals from Jacob Bruun Larsen in the 65th minute, Marco Reus in the 69th and two from Paco Alcacer in the last five minutes overturned a 2-0 lead by Bayer Lever­kusen after first-half goals from Mitchell Weiser and Jonathan Tah.

Spaniard Alcacer, who joined from Barcelona this season, had come on as a substitute in the 63rd minute.

“It was clear we had to show a reaction. Otherwise it would have gone completely differently,” Reus said of Dortmund’s lackluster first half against a clearly dominant Leverkusen. “When you come back so strongly that’s really impressive.”

Dortmund now have 14 points, one ahead of champions Bayern Munich, who suffered their first defeat of the season on Friday with a 2-0 loss at Hertha Berlin.

“We kept believing we can turn this around,” said Dortmund coach Lucien Favre. “I think it was a fantastic game for the fans. We put in a good start. Now we are at the top of the table after six match days. Obviously we are satisfied.”

Leverkusen went ahead after just nine minutes when midfielder Weiser hit the net with a spectacular shot from outside the area, then burly defender Tah doubled the lead just before the break but Reus set up Larsen to pull one back in and then scored himself minutes later.

Dortmund went ahead for the first time on 85 minutes when Alcacer lunged to guide a cross by defender Achraf Hakimi, on loan from Real Madrid, into the Leverkusen net.

Alcacer completed the Roy of the Rovers-style finish on 94 minutes, tapping into an empty net after Dortmund counter-attacked from their own box with Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky well out of his own penalty area.

Dortmund are the only unbeaten team in Germany’s top flight after Werder Bre­m­en earlier blew their cha­nce to overtake Bayern by losing 2-1 at VfB Stuttgart, even though the host’s goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler conceded a howler of an own goal.

The former Germany international miskicked a throw-in from a team mate, sending the ball into his own net for Werder’s equaliser, before Gonzalo Castro snatched the winner for the hosts in the 75th minute.

Werder, unbeaten until Saturday, are fifth on 11 points while Stuttgart move up to 15th.

RB Leipzig are also on 11 points in sixth after beating Champions League club Hoffenheim 2-1 thanks to two goals from Yussuf Poulsen.

Borussia Moenchen­glad­bach went fourth despite being held to a 2-2 draw at VfL Wolfsburg, where they have not won for 15 years, as goals by Gladbach’s Alassane Plea and Thorgan Hazard were cancelled out by Wolfsburg’s Renato Steffen and Wout Weghorst.

Alessandro Schoepf’s early header was enough for Schalke 04 to beat Mainz 05 1-0 and end their five-game losing start to the league.

Nuremberg won the battle of the teams promoted last season when they romped to a 3-0 win over Fortuna Duesseldorf thanks to goals by Hanno Behrens, Mikael Ishak and Federico Palacios.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2018