Dortmund beats Bremen 4-1, revives Champions League hopes

<p>BERLIN &mdash; Erling Haaland ended his a four-game scoreless run to help Borussia Dortmund beat Werder Bremen 4-1 and cut the distance the Bundesliga’s Champions League qualification spots on Sunday.</p>
<p>Dortmund profited from fourth-place Eintracht Frankfurt’s defeat to Borussia Mönchengladbach the day before to move four points behind Frankfurt with five games of the season remaining.</p>
<p>Dortmund, which was knocked out of the Champions League in the quarterfinals by Manchester City on Wednesday, also has a German Cup semifinal against second-division Holstein Kiel on May 1.</p>
<p>Dortmund coach Edin Terzić made two changes from the team that lost 2-1 to City on Wednesday, bringing in Gio Reyna and Julian Brandt for Emre Can and Ansgar Knauff, who dropped to the bench.</p>
<p>Counterpart Florian Kohfeldt made a host of changes to the team that lost 4-1 at home to Leipzig last weekend.</p>
<p>One of them, Milot Rashica opened the scoring in the 14th minute, when Maximilian Eggestein played him through with a brilliant pass from midfield. Mats Hummels was unable to stop the speeding Rashica, who fired low inside the far post.</p>
<p>But Reyna equalized with a thunderous shot inside the top right corner from just outside the penalty area in the 29th, shortly before Bremen’s Kevin Möhwald conceded a penalty for a foul on Marco Reus.</p>
<p>Haaland duly scored from the spot in the 24th. It was his first goal in April, ending his uncharacteristic barren run.</p>
<p>Haaland will hardly get an easier finish for his second goal four minutes later, when Bremen’s defense failed to deal with a Reyna cross and left the tall forward completely free at the far post to tap in.</p>
<p>The Norwegian might have had a hat trick but Bremen goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka got his fingertips to his shot early in the second half, and he had a late goal ruled out for offside.</p>
<p>Theodor Gebre Selassie was unable to stop Hummels’ header from a corner crossing the line in the 87th.</p>
<p>Eggestein’s effort off the post was closest the visitors got in the second half.</p>
<p>Sunday’s other Bundesliga game between Mainz and Hertha Berlin was called off <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pal-dardai-coronavirus-pandemic-berlin-germany-soccer-e64ec8757e3c1d533474e7db45b9e21a">due to a COVID-19 outbreak at Hertha</a>. </p>
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<p>Ciarán Fahey on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/cfaheyAP">https://twitter.com/cfaheyAP</a></p>