Dortmund beats St. Pauli for back-to-back wins in Bundesliga

BERLIN (AP) — Serhou Guirassy scored again on Saturday as Borussia Dortmund secured back-to-back wins in the Bundesliga for the first time this season with a 2-0 victory at St. Pauli.

But it was far from impressive from Niko Kovač’s team, which bounced back from two defeats by routing Union Berlin 6-0 last weekend.

Dortmund failed to the threaten in the first half, while St. Pauli — which has now failed to score in four games — created the goal-scoring opportunities.

“We got exactly what we expected in the first half,” Kovač said. “We had difficulties in build up play. We didn’t find the right solutions. During the break, we switched from a three-man defense to four-man, which allowed our full-backs to play much better, and then we had control of the game.”

Guirassy scored his 14th goal of the season against the run of play in the 50th minute when he tapped the ball in from close range after St. Pauli defender David Nemeth blocked his first effort. The home team had failed to clear Yan Couto’s cross and Karim Adeyemi recovered the ball for Dortmund before playing Guirassy through.

Adeyemi made it 2-0 on a counterattack after a St. Pauli free kick in the 58th after a Marcel Sabitzer clearance.

Dortmund remained 10th, but was given a boost in its quest for Champions League qualification with Mainz coming from behind to defeat Leipzig 2-1 away.

Leverkusen keeps pace

Defending champion Bayer Leverkusen earned a 4-1 win over third-place Eintracht Frankfurt in the late game to stay eight points behind league leader Bayern Munich.

It took a brilliant pass from Granit Xhaka to break the deadlock, picking out Nathan Tella’s clever run for the Nigerian forward to fire inside the left post in the 26th minute.

Nordi Mukiele poked the ball home after a corner for 2-0 three minutes later, and Xhaka played another perfect pass for Álex Grimaldo, who cut the ball back for Patrik Schick to score the third in the 33rd.

Hugo Ekitiké restored some Frankfurt hope four minutes later when he capitalized on a mistake from Mukiele, but Aleix Garcia sealed the result with Leverkusen’s fourth in the 62nd.

It stretched Leverkusen's unbeaten run away from home in the Bundesliga to 29 games.

Leverkusen next faces Bayern in the last 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday.

All the away teams won on Saturday.

Wolfsburg won at Werder Bremen 2-1 — the home team’s fifth straight loss across all competitions — Hoffenheim won at Bochum 1-0, and Borussia Mönchengladbach enjoyed a 3-0 win in Heidenheim.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer