ERLING HAALAND netted twice to end his mini dry spell as Borussia Dortmund hammered Wolfsburg 6-1 on Saturday ahead of next weekend’s Bundesliga showdown against leaders Bayern Munich.
Haaland, 21, who is widely tipped to leave Dortmund at the end of the season, netted twice in emphatic style having drawn a blank in his previous five games.
It means the youngster now has 18 goals from 20 appearances in total this season.
Haaland’s performance was all the more impressive as he is carrying a leg injury.
“It’s getting better. He still has pain, but he showed today that he tolerates it well,” said Dortmund coach Marco Rose.
“It was a good performance by him in a good team display.”
The thumping win over mid-table Wolfsburg leaves second-placed Dortmund six points behind Bayern, who are away to Arminia Bielefeld on Sunday.
Bayern will be without France defender Lucas Hernandez and winger Kingsley Coman who missed training Saturday due to muscular problems.
Bayern, who exited the Champions League on Tuesday, are chasing a 10th straight Bundesliga title.
In spring sunshine, and in front of 79,200 at Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund turned on the style with five goals in a devastating 14-minute spell in the first half.
Tom Rothe, 17, marked a dream Bundesliga debut when the Germany Under-19 defender headed in Dortmund’s opening goal from a corner after 24 minutes.
The floodgates opened with four more goals in quick succession.
Axel Witsel fired under the feet of visiting goalkeeper Koen Casteels, Manuel Akanji tapped in a free-kick and Emre Can scored with a long-range shot.
The Wolfsburg defence was shredded again when Marco Reus served up a tap-in for Haaland, who applauded his team-mate after netting his first goal since late January.
It was the first time Dortmund held a 5-0 half-time league in Germany’s top flight since April 2013.
Reus, who claimed assists for Akanji and Haaland’s first goal, went close when he fired just over the crossbar.
Dortmund’s captain then linked with Julian Brandt to release Haaland, who hammered in his second goal to make it 6-0 after just 54 minutes.
Wolfsburg grabbed a late consolation when Ridle Baku fired in the rebound after Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel’s stunning save had denied Lukas Nmecha.
Veteran midfielder Kevin Prince-Boateng put in a commanding display as Hertha Berlin earned a 1-0 win at Augsburg to climb out of the bottom three.
Boateng bossed the midfield as Suat Serdar scored early in the second half to give Hertha only their second win in nine games.
Hertha coach Felix Magath had described Boateng as the “only leader” in his team and the 35-year-old repeatedly made his mark in a battling display.
“It was an important win for us, I’m just happy that we took the three points home,” said Boateng.
Hertha’s win pushed VfB Stuttgart, who held Mainz to a goalless away draw, down into 16th, which carries a relegation play-off at the end of the season
Freiburg stay in the fight for a Champions League place next season with a 3-0 win over Bochum.
FFP. Unfortunately the boat was never going to float.
Money is king. From the bottom to the top.
As far as I’m aware financial revenue is the big thing and while Milan haven’t been bringing in a huge amount in terms of ticket sales, commercial revenue has still been quite high while they’ve been in the footballing wilderness.
Shit-show is such an underused way to describe something. Brilliant
they are only not facing ffp because they are not in Europe this season, will be screwed next year unless the new owner finds investors who will pour serious money in , borrowed money all around to buy the club and players, and are pretty much in a vulture fund with elliot management group who will take over if loans are not paid back next year. Apparently they are waiting on bonds to come through to even pay for some of their signings so they can’t play competitive matches until mid/end of August
Financial FairPlay is the biggest pile of shite. UEFA are useless. Good at fining clubs for minor indiscretions but when it comes to proper governing and safe guarding of the game they are inept.