BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Buerki starred in a 1-0 win at Leipzig that kept the Bundesliga leaders six points clear of Bayern Munich on Saturday.

The home side pushed hard for an equaliser after Axel Witsel’s early strike for Dortmund, but Buerki was consistently in the right place at the right time to keep his team ahead.

Marcel Sabitzer should have leveled after the break, and again midway through the second half, but Buerki got the better of their one-on-one situations.

Witsel fired the visitors ahead in the 19th minute, blasting the ball in off the underside of the crossbar after Lukasz Piszczek helped on a corner.

“The first half was good, the second half we suffered a little too much,” Witsel said. “In the end we are happy.”

In another match, Alassane Plea scored as Moenchengladbach consolidated third place with a 1-0 win at local rival Bayer Leverkusen.

The France forward struck with the visitors’ first shot on goal in the 37th minute, ruining Peter Bosz’s debut as Leverkusen coach.

Bosz, who formerly coached Dortmund, has replaced Heiko Herrlich, who was fired on Dec. 23 despite a run of four wins from five games in all competitions. The club said there had been a “stagnation” in development.

Mainz also held on to win 3-2 at Stuttgart despite the home side’s rally with two late goals. Stuttgart also hit the post in the final minutes and had a penalty appeal turned down.

Eintracht Frankfurt won 3-1 at home against Freiburg, Fortuna Duesseldorf beat Augsburg 2-1 and Werder Bremen won 1-0 at Hannover.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2019