Jadon Sancho hat-trick keeps Dortmund in title hunt

England ahead Jadon Sancho capped a blistering particular person efficiency with a second-half hat-trick which helped Borussia Dortmund to a 6-1 win at Paderborn on Sunday and stored alive their slim Bundesliga title hopes. The consequence left Dortmund second on 60 factors from 29 video games with 5 rounds of matches remaining, seven behind champions and league leaders Bayern Munich, whereas Paderborn remained rooted to the foot of the standings on 19 factors.

With prolific 19-year-old Norway striker Erling Haaland sidelined by a knee damage, the guests missed a string of probabilities within the first half however Sancho lit up the second as Dortmund ran riot. Thorgan Hazard, who took Haaland’s place up entrance, gave Dortmund a 54th-minute lead from shut vary after keeper Leopold Zingerle, who had made a string of excellent saves, didn’t take care of an Emre Can cross from the left.

Sancho made it 2-Zero with a easy tap-in from two metres three minutes later thanks some good work from Julian Brandt earlier than an Uwe Hunemeier penalty briefly rekindled Paderborn’s problem within the 72nd minute. It turned out to be a false daybreak as Sancho scored Dortmund’s third two minutes later with a nice left-foot shot from contained in the penalty space and Paderborn fell aside within the closing phases.

Achraf Hakimi drilled within the fourth within the 85th minute with a crisp shot into the far nook and Marcel Schmelzer added the fifth within the 89th from shut vary. The unstoppable Sancho broke away on the midway line barely 60 seconds later and with Paderborn throwing all people ahead for a nook, he had on a regular basis and area to place the icing on the cake with a scientific end.

Dortmund, the 1997 Champions League winners who final received the German title in 2012, are at house to ninth-placed Hertha Berlin within the subsequent spherical on Saturday whereas Paderborn go to fifth-placed RB Leipzig.