Borussia Dortmund’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan breaks Hannover resistance

If the fact that Hannover lie 7 points from safety wasn’t enough to compile the misery for the North German club, they are without their influential Japanese midfielder Hiroshi Kiyotake, who is their top goalscorer with 3 goals this season.

Dortmund will need another win if they are to have any chance of curbing the 8 point gap to league leaders Bayern Munich. Shinji Kagawa was brought down by Salif Sane on the edge of the box, and the Germany global stepped up to the resulting free kick, which beat the wall but not the crossbar.

Hannover might have taken a shock lead 10 minutes before half-time but Hiroki Sakai’s cutback, after the fullback charged beyond Marcel Schmelzer, evaded the well-placed Uffe Bech.

Gundogan came close in the early stages of the second half after a neat exchange with Henrikh Mkhitaryan set him up for a shot that swung just wide of the post, but Dortmund did find the net soon afterwards, with Mkhitaryan leading a counterattack and blasting a splendid effort into the bottom corner.

Ilkay Gundogan fired over after the break before Mkhitaryan finally scored in the 57th. A huge win is on the cards for the home side.

“From that point of view we can talk about a point won, ” Nagelsmann said. Every other team has failed to score at least twice.

Dortmund were without injured star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who missed his first league match of the season after netting 20 goals in as many Bundesliga games. In his first two seasons at Dortmund he has scored 18 goals in 88 games.

Hoffenheim drew 1-1 at Werder Bremen in Julian Nagelsmann’s first game in charge of the visitors.

Chelsea loanee Papy Djilobodji levelled matters just three minutes later, with Kramaric’s late dismissal unable to tip the scales in Bremen’s direction.

Hannover remained compact, however, forcing the home side to be patient in the face of its defensive setup.

Alexander Meier broke the deadlock in the 24th minute for Eintracht.

Stuttgart made it five wins in a row to continue their climb up the table with victory over high-flying Hertha Berlin.

Australia goalkeeper Mitch Langerak was an unused substitute for Stuttgart.

Missing leading goalscorer Javier Hernandez due to injury, Leverkusen fell behind to Sandro Wagner’s 28th-minute opener.