Feb 13, 2015
Dortmund beats Mainz to leave relegation zone
Marco Reus scored one goal and set up another as Borussia Dortmund came from behind to beat Mainz 4-2 to escape the Bundesliga relegation zone on Friday. "Consistency is important now," Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp after his side's second consecutive win.
The Canadian Press
BERLIN - Marco Reus scored one goal and set up another as Borussia Dortmund came from behind to beat Mainz 4-2 to escape the Bundesliga relegation zone on Friday.
"Consistency is important now," Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp after his side's second consecutive win.
Reus was cheered by home fans for signing a new deal on Tuesday, but the celebrations were cut short when Elkin Soto opened the scoring after just 53 seconds.
A slip from Neven Subotic forced Roman Weidenfeller to punch the ball away, then fall over his own defender, only for Soto to return the ball with a lob that the despairing Marcel Schmelzer failed to keep out.
"It was difficult after going behind in the first minute to a goal that belongs in a comedy routine," Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc said.
Reus struck the post two minutes later, before Shinji Kagawa and then Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang brought good saves from Mainz goalkeeper Stefanos Kapino.
Pierre Bengtsson did brilliantly to hold off Aubameyang after Reus played the Dortmund forward through in the 31st, before Reus fired over from another promising position. There were some whistles of discontent from home fans at halftime.
Subotic equalized with a header from a corner in the 50th, five minutes before Reus rounded the goalkeeper to make it 2-1 to Dortmund.
Poor defending allowed Soto set up Yunus Malli's response two minutes later.
But Reus set up Aubameyang with a wonderful pass to score with a cool finish in the 71st, and Nuri Sahin sealed the result when he pounced on the rebound from Aubameyang's free kick seven minutes after that.
"Two wins in a row does us well in our situation," Zorc said.
Dortmund climbed to 14th, level on points with Mainz, ahead of the rest of the 21st round.
"When you concede two goals from set pieces you can't win in Dortmund. It shouldn't happen," said Mainz coach Kasper Hjulmand, whose side has only one win from 13 league games.