Agency :
A brace from Thomas Meunier and Erling Haaland helped second-placed Borussia Dortmund put pressure on Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich after easing 5-1 past fourth-placed Freiburg in the opener of the 19th round on Friday.
The “BVB” dominated the proceedings from the starting whistle and needed only 15 minutes to break the deadlock against passive visitors from Freiburg as Meunier headed home Julian Brandt’s corner kick to the near post.
The Belgium international was a menace in the penalty area and reaped his brace at the half hour mark when Brandt’s next corner allowed Meunier to head home again.
Freiburg remained uninspired and couldn’t put up resistance whereas Dortmund continued on the front foot to triple the lead just before the break as Haaland finished off Jude Bellingham’s good build-up work.
The visitors tried to take over after the restart and should have reduced the deficit in the 50th minute but Ermedin Demirovic wasted a promising chance from very close range.
Demirovic finished the job 10 minutes later though as the joker benefitted from a parry from Dortmund’s goalkeeper Gregor Kobel before tapping home the rebound to make it 3-1 on the scoreboard.
Freiburg gained momentum but Marco Rose’s men remained unimpressed and restored their three-goal advantage as Haaland utilized Mahmoud Dahoud’s forced turnover and through ball to mark his second goal of the night in the 75th minute.
Dortmund wasn’t done with the scoring as Dahoud got his name on the scoreboard as well after drilling Nico Schulz’s square pass into the top right corner with four minutes remaining.
“I think we played a terrific first half. We dominated Freiburg and established a three-goal lead. In the second half, we retracted with the lead and allowed Freiburg to pull one back, but we answered in style and sealed the deal,” Dortmund head coach Marco Rose said.
“We swallowed two goals after corners and never gained a foothold into the game. Dortmund played very well while we staged a poor performance over 90 minutes. It was a disappointing night for us,” Freiburg head coach Christian Streich said.
