Sports

Batshuayi scores for Dortmund again

February 10, 2018
(L-R) Borussia Dortmund’s Mario Gotze, Michy Batshuayi and Andre Schurrle celebrate after their German football league match against Hamburger in Dortmund Saturday. — Reuters
(L-R) Borussia Dortmund’s Mario Gotze, Michy Batshuayi and Andre Schurrle celebrate after their German football league match against Hamburger in Dortmund Saturday. — Reuters

BERLIN — Belgium striker Michy Batshuayi, on loan from Chelsea, scored his third Bundesliga goal in two games for Borussia Dortmund Saturday in its 2-0 home win against Hamburg.

Dortmund signed the 24-year-old for 1.5 million euros on loan for the rest of the season after selling top-scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to Arsenal last month.

Batshuayi is supplying the goals after marking his debut by netting twice in a 3-2 win at bottom side Cologne a week ago.

The Belgian had promised a somersault if he scored on his home debut and was as good as his word.

US winger Christian Pulisic threaded a pass through the Hamburg defense, which Batshuayi met at the far post for a tap in on 49 minutes.

The Belgian celebrated with a forward roll — just as Aubameyang used to do.

A dull match was lit up by Dortmund's second in the dying stages when Germany's World Cup winner Mario Goetze netted with a goal after coming off the bench.

Dortmund's injury-prone Germany winger Marco Reus returned after 259 days sidelined by a torn knee ligament.

The win left Dortmund third, a point behind second-placed RB Leipzig, which won 2-0 at home to Augsburg Friday with Liverpool-bound Naby Keita hammering home a free-kick.

Runaway league leader Bayern Munich is 15 points clear before Saturday night's clash at home against Schalke.

Bayern's head coach Jupp Heynckes, 72, misses the game with flu.

Eintracht Frankfurt stormed up to fourth with a 4-2 thrashing of bottom side Cologne.

Ante Rebic gave Frankfurt an early lead, but Cologne striker Simon Terrode equalized with a second-half penalty.

Frankfurt defender Marco Russ headed the hosts back into the lead for his first goal since overcoming cancer in 2016.

French defender Simon Falette and midfielder Marius Wolf scored in quick succession to stretch Frankfurt's lead to 4-1 before Terrode grabbed Cologne's second with a header.

Bayer Leverkusen dropped to fifth after a shock 2-0 defeat at home to Hertha Berlin.

Midfielder Valentino Lazaro gave Berlin the lead before Ivory Coast veteran Salomon Kalou pounced on a mistake to claim Hertha's second early in the second half.

Leverkusen's Jamaica winger Leon Bailey, 20, came on just before Kalou's goal, but failed to bag his ninth league goal this season in unusual circumstances with a freekick from just seven meters out.

Hertha goalkeeper Rune Jarstein absent-mindedly conceded a freekick inside his area on 70 minutes after touching the ball, which he dropped, then gathered again.

All 11 Berlin players packed the goal for the freekick, but Bailey's close-range shot was twice blocked and Kevin Volland hit the crossbar before Jarstein gratefully gathered.

Hoffenheim, under head coach Julian Nagelsmann, 30, earned its first win in six games with a 4-2 thrashing of Mainz as strikers Adam Szalai and Andrej Kramaric scored twice.

Freiburg lost for the first time in nine league games, crashing to a 2-1 defeat at Hanover 96, whose midfielder Felix Klaus scored the winner.

Milan continues revival

AC Milan continued its revival under Gennaro Gattuso with an emphatic 4-0 win at SPAL in Serie A Saturday, extending its unbeaten run to eight matches in all competitions.

Striker Patrick Cutrone scored two of its goals and midfielder Lucas Biglia was on target for the first time since his move from Lazio in the close season.

Cutrone, a Milan product who was preferred in the starting line-up to 38 million euro signing Andre Silva, put Milan ahead with a close-range goal in the second minute after SPAL goalkeeper Alex Meret parried Alessio Romagnoli's header.

Milan survived a tricky patch before the 20-year-old struck again in the 65th minute from another rebound after Meret saved Suso's curling shot.

This time, there was an element of fortune as Cutrone's first effort struck the post but ricocheted straight back at him and into the net.

Bigla took advantage of a mix-up in the SPAL defence to add the third and substitute Fabio Borini completed the scoring in the last minute, leaving Milan seventh on 38 points. — Agencies


February 10, 2018
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