Borussia Dortmund were down to ten men after only thirty minutes, but it didn't matter on the day as they fully dominated Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 on Saturday.
Marco Reus was played through the backline in the opening minutes of the match, but Kevin Trapp came up huge and saved his one-on-one attempt. That was disappointing for Reus, but he sure made up for it. In the 8th minute, Reus was played through a backline by Mario Götze at the same moment Frankfurt was attempting an offside trap. Reus was clean through and slotted the ball past Trapp for the first goal of the match.
Only a minute later, Reus made it 2-0. Mats Hummels pushed the attack through midfield. Yes, that Mats Hummels pushed the attack through the midfield. He played a diagonal ball on the ground to Reus, and he beat Trapp again for his second goal in two minutes.
Julian Schieber decided that he didn't want Robert Lewandowski to be the only BVB player suspended for next week's match. The forward received his second yellow card of the match in the 30th minute, and Dr. Felix Brych sent him to the showers.
Frankfurt pushed forward looking to capitalize on the man advantage, but it always seemed that BVB were closer to scoring. Takashi Inui was lively throughout the match for Frankfurt, but they were never able to find that final touch to beat Roman Weidenfeller.
Reus made it 3-0 in the 65th minute after some fantastic play by Götze to keep the play alive in the Frankfurt penalty area. Ten minutes later, Inui all but assured there would be no comeback when he was shown his second yellow card and sent off.
Sebastian Jung thought he almost pulled one back for Dortmund in stoppage time, but his long left-footed curler clanged off the crossbar. The Dortmund supporters were unhappy with Dr. Brych's performance tonight, and they got their chance to laugh hysterically at the end with the referee slipped and fell when trying to pick up the ball at the final whistle.
BVB leapfrog Bayer Leverkusen back into second place in the table, but they're still 15 points behind Bayern Munich. I don't think they'll be coming back and retaining the title this season. Frankfurt remains in fourth place and are now four points behind third place Leverkusen. The bigger concern will be that the game between them and the two sides beneath them is only three points.