DORTMUND: Bund­esliga leaders Borussia Dortmund twice came from a goal down to beat champions Bayern Munich 3-2 with substitute Paco Alcacer’s second-half winner enabling them to move seven points clear of their great rivals at the top.

“It looks like a lot, feels like it, too,” Bayern coach Niko Kovac said of the gap after his side’s best performance in weeks. “But in football everything is possible.”

The result piles added pressure on Kovac, as his side’s chances of winning a seventh straight title in his first season in charge took another blow.

“We allowed ourselves to be beaten twice on the counter, that shouldn’t have happened. We should have been more compact and unfortunately we lost a game which should have been a draw,” he added after Robert Lewandowski had two second-half goals disallowed for offside.

In a hugely entertaining encounter that lived up to its big-game billing, Dortmund came out on top, earning Bundesliga bragging rights and pulling away from their main title contenders going into the international break.

Lewandowski scored twice against his former side only for Dortmund captain Marco Reus to reply both times, first with a penalty, then with a brilliant volley to Lukasz Piszczek’s cross.

Reus missed good chances to score, but Alcacer, who came on with half an hour remaining, scored in the 73rd minute after Axel Witsel split the Bayern defence with a perfect through ball. The Spaniard stayed cool in front of Manuel Neuer to score his eighth goal in his sixth league appearance.

“We didn’t trust ourselves in the first half, but we played awesome football after the break and it was great fun,” said Reus.

Lucien Favre’s Dortmund remain unbeaten and the win lifted them to 27 points, with Borussia Moenchen­gladbach second on 24 and Bayern third on 20.

“It was a great game and I have to congratulate my players,” said Favre. “I don’t think I have seen a tougher Bayern team than in the opening 30 minutes. I was happy to go into the break trailing 1-0 because I knew they could not keep up that pace. It was hard for us but we then felt we could win the game.”

Earlier, Gladbach tightened their hold on second place with as 3-1 victory at Werder Bremen courtesy of a hat-trick from forward Alassane Plea, who also took his season’s tally to eight goals.

Fortuna Duesseldorf ended their six-game losing streak in the league with a 4-1 win at home over 10-man Hertha Berlin.

However, Fortuna remain second from bottom after VfB Stuttgart also claimed victory as defender Timo Baumgartl and midfielder Erik Thommy scored in a 2-0 win at Nuremberg.

English teenager Reiss Nelson scored an 84th-minute winner as Hoffenheim beat Augsburg 2-1; and Mainz 05 won at Freiburg 3-1.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2018