Alcacer stays red-hot as Dortmund outclass Leverkusen
Berlin - Spanish striker Paco Alcacer continued his perfect scoring record this season as Borussia Dortmund returned to winning ways with a 4-0 victory over top-four rivals Bayern Leverkusen on Saturday.
Dortmund were under pressure after a shock defeat to minnows Union Berlin in their last game, but goals from Alcacer, Marco Reus and Raphael Guerreiro secured a much-needed three points for Lucien Favre's side.
Alcacer has now scored seven goals in six games in all competitions since the beginning of the season.
Dortmund were denied by a brilliant double save from goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky early on before Alcacer gave them the lead just before the half-hour mark.
Shaking off his marker and beating the offside trap by a whisker, the in-form Spaniard met an Achraf Hakimi cross on the volley to beat Hradecky from close range.
Leverkusen looked the more dangerous side after the break, but Dortmund were more ruthless, and Marco Reus turned in Jadon Sancho's cross to double the lead on 50 minutes.
Sancho set up Raphael Guerreiro for Dortmund's third seven minutes from time, before Reus added a fourth in injury time.
Elsewhere, Borussia Moenchengladbach ran out 1-0 winners against Cologne in the Rhine derby.
Gladbach took the lead on 14 minutes after French striker Alassane Plea swept in a loose ball on the counter-attack, and Cologne spurned a late flurry of chances as the visitors notched up a second win of the season.
Augsburg ended their early-season blues with a smash-and-grab 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt.
Marco Richter opened the scoring against the run of play on 36 minutes, before a brilliant curling strike from Florian Niederlechner doubled Augsburg's lead.
Goncalo Paciencia's second-half strike was not enough for Frankfurt, who face Arsenal in the Europa League next Thursday,
In Berlin, Werder Bremen did what Dortmund had failed to do two weeks earlier by beating Union 2-1.
Bremen's Davy Klaassen and Union's Sebastian Andersson converted early penalties in an even first half.
Klaassen then missed a second penalty just after the break, but Niclas Fuellkrug headed in the winner moments later from the resulting corner.
Union's capital city neighbours Hertha Berlin continued their disastrous start to the season with a 2-1 defeat away to Mainz.
A late goal from Liverpool loanee Marko Grujic cancelled out a first-half tap-in from Robin Quaison, and appeared to save Hertha a point.
Yet Jeremiah St Juste's dramatic winner ended a three-game losing run for the hosts, and left Hertha bottom of the table with just one point from four games.