BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund crushed VfL Wolfsburg 5-1 away on Tuesday, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring twice, to provisionally top the Bundesliga ahead of champions Bayern Munich on goal difference.

Having hammered both Legia Warsaw and Darmstadt 6-0 in their previous matches, Thomas Tuchel’s Dortmund handed out another drubbing with Gonzalo Castro setting up two of their goals.

Dortmund are level on nine points with Bayern and third-placed Hertha Berlin, who the champions host on Wednesday.

“We played on another level today, Wolfsburg are stronger than the previous teams we’ve played,” Tuchel said.

Dortmund set a frantic early pace and scored when Raphael Guerreiro fired in from a tight angle after four minutes and doubled their lead on 17 minutes when Aubameyang looped his shot over Wolfsburg goalkeeper Koen Casteels.

Substitute Daniel Didavi scored in the 53rd as Wolfsburg stepped up the pressure at the start of the second half.

But the comeback was short-lived with the visitors scoring twice in four minutes with Ousmane Dembele netting an easy tap-in after Guerreiro had played in substitute Gonzalo Castro, who then delivered an assist for Aubameyang to get his second goal.

An unmarked Lukasz Piszczek headed in a corner in the 73rd to complete the demolition and push Wolfsburg down one place to ninth on five points.

Eintracht Frankfurt moved on to nine points by winning 2-0 at Ingolstadt, while struggling Hamburg SV slumped to a third loss in four matches with a 1-0 reverse at mid-table Freiburg, leaving coach Bruno Labbadia’s job in the balance.

Hamburg are 16th with one points from their four games.

Hoffenheim picked up a fourth draw after their Croatia striker Andrej Kramaric’s opener was cancelled out by Darmstadt’s Denys Oliinyk in the 92nd minute.

Published in Dawn September 22nd, 2016