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Mario Goetze (Front) of Dortmund competes during the Bundesliga match between Borussia Dortmund and Hannover 96 in Dortmund, Germany, Jan. 26, 2019. Dortmund won 5-1. (Xinhua/Joachim Bywaletz)
BERLIN, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Front runners Borussia Dortmund still topped the standings after hammering struggling Hannover 5-1 on home soil in the 19th round of Bundesliga on Saturday.
Hannover started highly motivated to stand up against the "BVB" and Miiko Albornoz's delivery into the box allowed Hendrik Weydandt to test Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Buerki with only two minutes played.
Soon the hosts gained a foothold and adjusted their strategy to overcome Hannover's well-positioned defense. It took 24 minutes for Dortmund to break the deadlock as Raphael Guerreiro exchanged a one-two with Achraf Hakimi, who slotted home from 16 meters.
Despite the setback, Hannover were still offensively minded and gave the hosts a hard time. Hence, Lucien Favre's men had to take a narrow 1-0 lead into the half-time.
After the restart, Hannover were able to hold the pace until the 60th minute when the hosts doubled their lead through Marco Reus who made no mistake from very close range.
Hannover were shocked again three minutes later when Dortmund tripled the lead as Jadon Sancho's assist allowed Mario Goetze to tap home from eight meters.
The hosts continued pressing forward as Guerreiro made the most of Reus' build up work to mark the fourth goal of the game.
Andre Breitenreiter's men showed a vital sign in the 86th minute when Marvin Bakalorz hammered home to reduce the arrears out of the blue. However, Dortmund showed no mercy and restored their four-goal lead as Axel Witsel unleashed a low shot from 20 meters to make it 5-1 in the dying minutes of the game.
With the result, Dortmund move nine points clear atop the standings. Hannover stayed at the next to the last with their third straight loss.
Elsewhere, runners-up Borussia Monchengladbach overcame Augsburg on their second-half goals from Oscar Wendt and Patrick Herrmann.
Hoffenheim saw off resilient Freiburg 4-2 after Andrej Kramaric provided a brace on the road.
Bayer Leverkusen returned to winning ways through goals from Kai Havertz, Kevin Volland and Julian Brandt against Wolfsburg.
Quaison's second-half winner secured Mainz a 2-1 win over bottom side Nuremberg and Eintracht Frankfurt shared the spoils with Werder Bremen following a two-all draw.
The following fixtures conclude the 19th round on Sunday: Bayern Munich face Stuttgart and Fortuna Dusseldorf encounter Leipzig.
