Football
2018/19 German Bundesliga
DOR 
2
FT
 M05
1
Reuters 5y

Sancho brace sends nervous Dortmund back on top

Borussia Dortmund teenager Jadon Sancho scored twice in seven minutes on Saturday to help his team to a nervous 2-1 victory over Mainz 05 that sent them provisionally back to the top of the Bundesliga.

Sancho's goals were enough to lift Dortmund, who were dominant in the first half but inexplicably eased off after the break, to 66 points with five games left to play. They are two points ahead of champions Bayern Munich, who face Fortuna Duesseldorf on Sunday.

Sancho now has ten league goals of the season today, adding to his 13 assists.

Dortmund, eager to make amends for last week's 5-0 demolition by Bayern, put in a whirlwind start and Mainz almost scored an own goal when Danny Latza deflected a Mario Gotze cutback onto the post in the sixth minute.

"We had to bounce back from last week. Last week didn't go our way, Bayern got the three points," Sancho said after the match. "We knew today that we had to get the three points. So we've been training hard this week and recovering well. I'm just happy that I got the two goals for the team and the three points."

Jacob Bruun Larsen twice came close before Gotze tried it again in the 17th minute and found England international Sancho at the far post who drilled in for the lead.

The 19-year-old doubled the score in similar fashion in the 24th minute, firing in a Thomas Delaney assist.

Instead of scoring again, the hosts slackened after the break, allowing Mainz, who had hit the post on the stroke of halftime, to come forward.

"We knew today was going to be a tough game. Mainz have been playing well recently," Sancho said. "We played well in the first half and the two goals were really important for us. In the second half, we really dropped [off]. We really have to learn how to keep the momentum in the second half and keep going.

The visitors hit the woodwork again with Karim Onisiwo in the 63rd minute and cut the deficit with Robin Quaison's deserved goal in the 83rd before Dortmund keeper Roman Buerki made a triple point-blank save in the 87th to protect Dortmund's three points.

Information from Reuters and ESPN FC's Stefan Buczko was used in this report. 

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