Borussia Dortmund secured second place in the Bundesliga charts with a comfortable 6-1 victory over bottom side Paderborn.
Paderborn frustrated Dortmund in the first half for long periods, while creating a few presentable scoring opportunities through Christopher Antwi-Adjei, who dragged both sides of the best work of BVB.
Thorgan Hazard pressured Leopold Zingerle into a smart save with Dortmund’s first opening of note. Raphael Guerreiro also came close with a furious strike going down the corner until a Paderborn defender interfered to wide-range it.
Emre Can send a header past the post and drove over as the side of Lucien Favre entered the break level.
Shortly after the restart, Gerrit Holtmann flashed an enticing ball across the goal but neither Ansi-Adjei nor Dennis Srebeny was able to apply the finish pressure. This was the wake-up call needed by Dortmund, as Achraf Hakimi brought the best out of Zingerle and Hazard clipped an effort wide before meeting the low ball of Guerreiro to break the deadlock.
The highlight of the match, however, was Jadon Sancho scoring a hat-trick in the second-half.
Sancho slotted out of Julian Brandt’s inch-perfect cross in another easy attempt but Paderborn refused to throw in the towel. Srebeny had ruled out an attempt for offside and former Dortmund defender Uwe Hünemeier reduced the penalty spot arrears, only for Sancho to shoot in from 18 yards and for Hakimi to add a fourth.
After US teenager Gio Reyna came close to a maiden Bundesliga goal, fellow substitute Marcel Schmelzer turned in Axel Witsel’s cross, with Sancho completing his hat-trick from close range in added time.
After scoring his first goal, Sancho took off his shirt to reveal a “Justice for George Floyd” T-shirt. Floyd died after being arrested by police outside a shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 25 May. He also posted on Instagram that his hat-trick was a bittersweet victory, with the present injustice unravelling in the world.
Here are the line-ups for the match:
Paderborn: Zingerle – Hunemeier, Strohdiek, Schonlau (c) – Dräger, Vasiliadis (Sabiri 83′), Holtmann, Collins – Srbeny (Zolinski 66′), Mamba (Michel 66′), Antwi-Adjei (Jastrzembski 83′)
Dortmund: Bürki – Piszczek (c), Hummels, Akanji – Hakimi (Morey 87′), Can (Balerdi 87′), Delaney, Guerreiro (Schmelzer 80′) – Brandt (Reyna 80′), Hazard, Sancho
