Bundesliga round-up: Gladbach pair thrive to lead top performers

Der Klassiker lived up to its billing on Saturday evening as Borussia Dortmund played out an exciting 3-2 win over Bayern Munich. They twice came from behind to defeat the Bundesliga champions to open up a four-point lead at the top of the table in Germany’s top tier. Paco Alcacer scored the decisive goal in front of his own fans, his eighth of the season from his eighth shot on target, after Marco Reus had twice drawn Dortmund level. 

The Germany international hit the back of the net with two of his six shots on goal and chipped in with returns of three successful dribbles and four tackles in the entertaining encounter. All in all, Reus’ performance was enough to land a WhoScored rating of 9.20. 

Reus was pipped to the top two spots but Gladbach pair Thorgan Hazard and Alassane Plea. The former secured a WhoScored rating of 9.26 in a 3-1 win over Werder Bremen. The Belgian registered one assist from three key passes and additional returns of six successful dribbles, two tackles and two interceptions capped off a notable display from Hazard. 

Hazard’s assist was for one of Plea’s three goals in the victory in Bremen as the Frenchman put in a man of the match showing. The 25-year-old has now failed to have a direct hand in a goal in his just one his last 10 league showings as Plea scored a hat-trick from five shots on Saturday. With three successful dribbles and two tackles to go with his goals, Plea landed a perfect WhoScored 10 rating at the weekend and is our Bundesliga player of the week. 

While Reus, Hazard and Plea had weekends to remember, Bayer Leverkusen’s Dominik Kohr had one to forget as the 24-year-old failed to have the desired impact from the bench in an eventual 3-0 loss at RB Leipzig. Bayer Leverkusen conceded a second, just two minutes after he came on, while Kohr was at fault for the third in the defeat. Having failed to make a tackle, interception or key pass, the German landed a WhoScored rating of just 5.17. 

He spares the blushes of Manuel Neuer, whose WhoScored rating against Dortmund (5.22) was the second lowest in the Bundesliga in gameweek 11. The Germany number one saved just one of the four shots on target he faced in Dortmund and failed to successfully claim a cross in the 3-2 defeat.