STUTTGART: Borussia Dortmund substitute Julian Brandt scored once in either half to earn a 2-0 victory at VfB Stuttgart on Friday and bounce back for last week’s loss to RB Leipzig.

The second-placed Ruhr valley club, who have five games left in the season, maintained their slim title chances as they are on 60 points, six behind Bayern Munich, who have a game in hand.

Dortmund, who had lost 4-1 at home against Leipzig last week, suffered some bad luck at the start with Gio Reyna being taken off injured after only two minutes and Brandt coming on.

“The best response you can give to setbacks [like defeat to Leipzig] is to win games,” Brandt said. “That’s also what goes down well with fans. Unfortunately we have been forced to show such reactions too often. We need to improve that.”

The visitors quickly recovered from the early setback with Raphael Guerreiro hitting the post in the ninth minute before Brandt tapped in for the lead from an Erling Haaland pass in the 12th to score the earliest goal by a substitute in Bundesliga history.

“You try to quickly warm up but team mates have little patience at this stage,” he said of the early substitution. “You are then under pressure to get into the game quickly with the first touches.”

Norwegian Haaland, a major transfer target, provided the assist but has not scored in his last five league matches, his longest goal drought in the Bundesliga.

With Stuttgart missing in-form striker Sasa Kalajdzic, they were on the backfoot after the break and Brandt struck again in the 71st. He rifled in from the edge of the box to give Dortmund a two-goal cushion.

Stuttgart, beaten for the first time in five league games, had a string of late chances but Borna Sosa hit the crossbar and an unmarked Konstantinos Mavropanos sent his header wide.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2022