 "Borussia Dortmund thumped Bochum 4-2 in the Bundesliga on Friday. AP")
Borussia Dortmund came from two goals down to beat lowly Bochum 4-2 at home on Friday with ‘super’ Serhou Guirassy scoring twice. Summer arrival Guirassy got on the scoresheet alongside captain Emre Can, who scored a penalty, and Felix Nmecha. Dortmund now have ten points from five games while Bochum are one of three Bundesliga outfits, alongside St Pauli and Holstein, on a single point.
“Serhou is super,” Can told DAZN, adding “it’s great to have a player up front who’s always good for a goal.”
“We got hit early but we stayed clear in our minds. I don’t know if I can say it, but I think we deserved to win,” Dortmund coach Nuri Sahin said.
“It’s a process and we spoke about it. We concede a third and things go belly up pretty quick, but sometimes you need to suffer to learn.” Dortmund came into the match with their local rivals stung by a 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Stuttgart last week for their worst start to a league season since 2014-15, when then manager Jurgen Klopp stepped down from the club.
The hosts started brightly against a Bochum side yet to win in any competition this season but were behind after 16 minutes, Matus Bero scoring on the counter against the run of play.
Just five minutes later, the home side were two down after a poor attempt to play out from the back laid the ball on a platter for Dani de Wit to slam home, giving Bochum a 2-0 lead after 21 minutes.
After the match, Can told DAZN, “I think nobody in the stadium could make sense of what happened early. “We were suddenly 2-0 behind and then your mind turns to last week and the loss in Stuttgart and you think ‘it doesn’t look good’.”
Sahin cradled his head in his hands while former manager Edin Terzic, who took the club to last year’s Champions League final, watched on in the crowd.
Shellshocked, Dortmund failed to spark to life and Bochum could have had a third when Monaco loanee Myron Boadu broke free on the counter but scuffed his shot wide.
With Dortmund reeling, Guirassy struck just before half-time, heading in a Julian Brandt cross to draw the hosts closer at the break.
Guirassy’s movement troubled the visitors and he won the hosts a penalty after 61 minutes, going down in the box under attention from former Dortmund defender Felix Passlack.
Can converted to draw the hosts level. After Sahin made four changes, Guirassy put the hosts in front with 15 minutes remaining, sliding a Karim Adeyemi pass under Bochum ‘keeper Patrick Drewes.
Drewes could have done better from Guirassy’s shot but made a meal of Dortmund’s next attempt six minutes later, letting a Nmecha shot squirt under him to give the hosts control.
Guirassy now has four goals in his last three games for Dortmund while Bochum sit second last in the table. On Saturday, reigning champions Bayer Leverkusen travel to Bayern Munich.
Barcola leads PSG to win over Rennes
Bradley Barcola scored twice as Paris Saint-Germain downed Rennes 3-1 on Friday to stay unbeaten and move three points clear at the top of Ligue 1.
Barcola curled in a fine finish on the half hour and Lee Kang-in doubled the advantage on 58 minutes with a diving header after the France forward’s rasping effort clattered the post.
Achraf Hakimi then set up Barcola for a simple tap-in as he overtook Marseille striker Mason Greenwood as the league’s leading scorer this term with six goals.
Former PSG youngster Arnaud Kalimuendo reduced the deficit with a penalty 15 minutes from time following a handball by Lucas Beraldo, with a late Alidu Seidu goal for Rennes ruled out for the same reason.
“I’m very satisfied and very happy with the match. We were far superior, we scored three goals and could have scored more,” said PSG coach Luis Enrique, albeit lamenting the way in which his team “lost control” towards the end.
The leaders can be caught back up by Monaco and Marseille this weekend. Monaco play Montpellier on Saturday before Marseille visit Strasbourg on Sunday. PSG are back in action on Tuesday away to Arsenal in the Champions League.
Brest suffered a fourth defeat in six games after losing 3-0 at promoted Auxerre ahead of their trip to Salzburg in the Champions League next week.
Mallorca maintain good start with 2-1 win
Canadian striker Cyle Larin scored against his old club as Mallorca kept up their promising start to the Spanish league season with a 2-1 win away at Real Valladolid on Friday.
It was the third win in a row for Mallorca, who moved into fourth place with 14 points from eight games.
Valladolid, meanwhile, have not won a league match since the opening day of the season and has now taken only two points from its last seven games.
Although all five of their points this season have come at home, the newly promoted side was unable to make much of an impact in front of 20,000 fans.
Yet it took almost an hour for Mallorca to make its dominance count when Larin, who signed from Valladolid last month, controlled a nice ball from Dani Rodríguez and then converted with poise from close range.
Substitute Valery Fernández made it 2-0 with seven minutes remaining, before Iván Sánchez got one back in stoppage time for Valladolid.
“We’re very disappointed because we we’ve been strong at home,” Sánchez saiod. “Games are getting away from us, any mistake gets penalised.”
AC Milan join Torino at Serie A summit by thumping Lecce
AC Milan joined Torino at the top of Serie A after Friday’s convincing 3-0 win over lowly Lecce built on their derby victory over Inter Milan last weekend.
Goals in five first-half minutes from Alvaro Morata, Theo Hernandez and Christian Pulisic sent Milan on their to way to a third straight league win and moved them level on 11 points with Torino.
Milan also have a superior goal difference to Torino, which would have put the seven-time European champions top if they hadn’t played a game more.
Paulo Fonseca’s team, who had failed to win their first three league matches of the season, could have won by more as both Tammy Abraham and Ruben Loftus-Cheek struck the woodwork either side of half-time.
The only sour note from the night was teenage defender Davide Bartesaghi being sent off for a rash challenge with 10 minutes remaining, just five minutes after replacing Hernandez.
“That’s what makes football so great, things can change for the better or worse over 90 minutes,” said Fonseca, who had been heavily criticised after his team were given a footballing lesson by Liverpool 10 days ago.
“It was important to win ofter winning the derby… it was difficult to get our feet back on the ground but the players knew what needed to be done and won the match.”
Milan now travel to Germany to take on Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Tuesday with their tails up and key attacking players in fine form.
Pulisic’s tap-in two minutes from the break was his fourth goal in as many matches for Milan while Hernandez was back to his rampaging best, swinging in the cross for Morata’s opener and lashing home the hosts’ brilliant second.
Fonseca said on Thursday that Morata had been a doubt and he was taken off to keep him available for Leverkusen.
“I didn’t have a pre-season and have missed a lot of training sessions, so it just takes a bit longer (to get fully fit). I went off as a precaution,” said Morata to Sky.
Tuesday’s clash in Germany will be key for Fonseca after opening their Champions League campaign with that emphatic 3-1 defeat to Liverpool on their own patch.
Champions Inter will move level with Milan and Torino if they win at Udinese in Saturday’s early match, a chance to bounce back from derby defeat ahead of the visit of Red Star Belgrade to the San Siro on Tuesday.
A thrashing at the hands of Milan completed a horrendous week for Lecce who sit one point and a place above the relegation zone.
Luca Gotti’s team threw away a two-goal in lead against Parma last weekend by conceding a brace of stoppage-time strikes and followed that up by being dumped out of the Italian Cup by second-tier Sassuolo.
With inputs from agencies