Dortmund show they are hungry like the Wolf for Bundesliga title, as Frankfurt edge out Bochum
Borussia Dortmund cut the gap to Bayern Munich to seven points thanks to a narrow 1-0 victory over Arminia Bielefeld, who suffered a third consecutive defeat without scoring.
Meanwhile, Eintracht Frankfurt clinched their third successive victory in all competitions, as they came from behind to beat Bochum at the Deutsche Bank Park.
Dortmund and Bielefeld both entered the contest without a number of first-team regulars, while the visitors were also missing their head coach Frank Kramer, who was watching from home after testing positive for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Eintracht Frankfurt clinched their third successive victory in all competitions, as they came from behind to beat Bochum at the Deutsche Bank Park.
Although Donyell Malen struck the post early on, it was the away side who started the encounter the strongest. With Bielefeld threatening, Gregor Kobel had to make a couple of saves in the opening 20 minutes. Masaya Okugawa stung the palms of the Dortmund goalkeeper before he comfortably gathered Bryan Lasme’s headed effort.
After failing to make the most of those early chances, the lowest-goalscorers in the Bundesliga were made to pay by their hosts in the 21st minute. Bielefeld failed to deal with a Dortmund free-kick, which was picked up by Jude Bellingham and the England international showed great vision and skill to find Thorgan Hazard, who laid the ball on a plate for Wolf to clinically dispatch past Ortega.
Having scored his second goal of the season, Wolf was in the mood for more, but he was denied on the half-hour mark by a superb Stefan Ortega save. The hosts then thought they had the chance to double their advantage from the spot, but the referee overturned his penalty decision following a brief consultation with VAR.
With the lead a slender one at half time, Die Schwarzgelben looked intent on doubling the advantage following the restart. However, Malen was denied once again by the woodwork after he danced past his man to create the space to thunder the ball against the crossbar. With the encounter still tensely poised, Marco Rose sent on reinforcements in the form of Giovanni Reyna and Erling Haaland, who was making his first appearance since January.
Reyna had the chance to seal the three points in the 81st minute following a swift counter-attacking move, but the 19-year-old could only poke his effort wide of the target. Fortunately for the hosts, they were not made to rue that missed opportunity as Bielefeld failed to score for the tenth league game this season.
Although Dortmund failed to score at least two goals for the first time at home in the Bundesliga this term, they will be pleased that they have now kept a clean sheet in three of their last five home league matches.
While Dortmund were squeezing past Bielefeld, at the Deutsche Bank Park, Eintracht Frankfurt were facing Bochum. The visitors had the advantage at the break after Sebastian Polter nodded home a Kostas Stafylidis free-kick in the 19th minute.
However, Oliver Glasner's side required just seven second-half minutes to turn the game on its head. Within a minute of the restart, the hosts were level after Erhan Mašović diverted the ball into his own goal before Daichi Kamada scored what proved to be the winner in the 52nd minute. Ansgar Knauff's cut-back was neatly flicked into the path of Kamada by Jesper Lindstrøm, leaving the Japan international with the simple task of guiding the ball into the awaiting net from just a few yards out.