BERLIN: Teenager Erling Haaland scored a sensational hat-trick within 23 minutes of making his Borussia Dortmund debut as he helped his team come from two goals down to secure a 5-3 Bundesliga win over Augsburg on Saturday.

The Norwegian’s performance took the spotlight away from RB Leipzig’s 3-1 comeback victory over Union Berlin, with two goals from Timo Werner, that moved them five points clear at the top on 40. Borussia Moenchen­gladbach are second on 35 after losing 2-0 to Schalke 04 on Friday.

Haaland, who joined only weeks ago from Red Bull Salzburg for a reported 20 million euros ($22.18 million), scored his first goal with a low drive in the 59th, three minutes after coming on to cut the gap to 3-2.

Augsburg had led 2-0 and 3-1 through a brace from Florian Niederlechner and a goal from Marco Richter after Dortmund had squandered plenty of scoring chances in the first half. Julian Brandt had briefly cut the deficit for Dortmund.

Jadon Sancho drew the hosts level in the 61st and Haaland then tapped in Dortmund’s fourth in the 70th to put them ahead. The 19-year-old talent sealed their win to live up to heightened expectations and completed his memorable hat-trick in the 79th minute to put fourth-placed Dortmund on 33 points.

Leipzig also had to come from behind after trailing 1-0 to visitors Union and Marius Buelter’s goal on the break.

Werner’s superb volley from the edge of the box in the 51st drew them level and Marcel Sabitzer’s close-range effort put them ahead in the 57th. Werner then added a second in the 83rd to go top of the scorers’ list with 20 league goals.

South Korean Kwon Chang-Hoon and Nils Petersen scored Freiburg’s goals in a 2-1 win at Mainz 05 which moved their side sixth. Werder Bremen kept a clean sheet for the first time this season as an own goal by Florian Kastenmeier secured a 1-0 win at Fortuna Duesseldorf.

Colombian striker Jhon Cordoba scored twice as Cologne pulled further away from the bottom three with a 3-1 win at home to VfL Wolfsburg. US international Timothy Chandler scored the winner as mid-table Eintracht Frankfurt won 2-1 at Hoffenheim.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2020