Borussia Dortmund twice hit the woodwork and wasted several more chances before squeezing past Augsburg 2-1 to climb to second place in the Bundesliga. Julian Brandt bagged a second-half winner after Dortmund’s Raphaël Guerreiro had put them in front with a 10th minute penalty.
Augsburg initially struggled to deal with the Dortmund pressure, evident from their three yellow cards and the penalty they conceded in the opening 15 minutes. But while the hosts may have had possession, they lacked precision and a killer instinct up front, with their top striker Erling Haaland still missing through injury.
Augsburg hung in there and snuck in a sucker punch before the break when Arne Maier’s 25-metre shot bounced off the crossbar and into the path of Andi Zeqiri who had no trouble slotting in for the equaliser.
Dortmund needed a special moment from Brandt to retake the lead six minutes after the restart, with the midfielder finding just enough space to weave in a shot with his left foot.
Dortmund’s captain, Marco Reus, rattled the crossbar with a rebound shot in the 57th, and Thorgan Hazard should have done much better in the 66th when, with only the Augsburg keeper to beat, his shot bounced off the post and went wide.
But the win saw Dortmund move up to 15 points, one behind Bayern Munich, who are in action against Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday. Freiburg, unbeaten so far, are also on 15 after a 2-1 win at Hertha Berlin.
Wolfsburg suffered a 3-1 defeat by visitors Borussia Mönchengladbach to drop to fifth on 13 points, while Stuttgart drew level with Hoffenheim on eight points after beating them 3-1.
Christopher Nkunku scored twice and substitute André Silva added another in a frantic nine-minute spell to steer RB Leipzig to a 3-0 victory over promoted Bochum.
The hosts were far from impressive for more than an hour but the game unravelled for Bochum midway through the second half, just seconds after Silva came on. The Portuguese proceeded to score his first goal from open play since his big-money move from Eintracht Frankfurt, heading in from close rage in the 70th minute.
He then sent Nkunku through, who flicked the ball in for their second goal four minutes later. He sealed victory when he scooped the ball over the keeper and into the net in the 78th to double his tally and make it nine goals in 10 games in all competitions this season.
In Spain, Atlético Madrid inflicted a 2-0 defeat on Barcelona that pushed Ronald Koeman closer to the exit. Earlier, Cádiz drew 0-0 with Valencia, while there were 1-0 home wins for Osasuna against Rayo Vallecano and Real Mallorca against Levante.
In Italy, Manuel Locatelli struck late to earn Juventus a 1-0 win over Torino in the Turin derby, as the Old Lady stretched their winning run to four games in all competitions and kept a Serie A clean sheet for the first time in seven months. The Italy international fired a shot in off the post with four minutes remaining as Juve rose to eighth place with 11 points, three ahead of their 11th-placed rivals.
Torino controlled the first half as Juve failed to register a shot on target, but Massimiliano Allegri’s side improved after the break and Alex Sandro’s header required a fine save from Vanja Milinkovic-Savic before Locatelli’s late winner. Ivan Juric’s side struggled to threaten Wojciech Szczesny’s goal, and Juventus kept things tight defensively to end a run of 20 matches in a row conceding in Serie A.
Internazionale’s Edin Dzeko equalised a minute after coming on as a substitute and then won a decisive penalty as the Italian champions came from behind to beat Sassuolo 2-1.
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Domenico Berardi’s penalty put the hosts in front midway through the first half but Dzeko made an immediate impact by heading in the leveller with his first touch in the 58th minute. The Bosnian was then brought down by the goalkeeper Andrea Consigli in the box and Lautaro Martinez dispatched the resulting spot kick.
“I have scored a lot of goals but I do not remember if I have ever scored with the first touch, there is a first time for everything,” Dzeko told DAZN. “I know how much I still have to offer, Inter know that too and decided to sign me to score goals.”
The win lifted Inter into second on 17 points, one point behind leaders Napoli, who travel to Fiorentina tomorrow. Sassuolo are 13th with seven points.
Salernitana climbed off the foot of the table after Milan Djuric’s header sealed a 1-0 win over Genoa, their first victory of the season. The newly promoted side’s win moved them up to four points, one behind Genoa in 16th and one more than bottom side Cagliari.