Dortmund beat Hanover ahead of Donetsk tie

Hosts Borussia Dortmund warmed up for their looming Champions League clash at home to Shakhtar Donetsk with a 3-1 win over Hanover 96 to stay second in the Bundesliga. With runaway league leaders Bayern Munich at relegation-threatened Hoffenheim on Sunday, Dortmund's victory provisionally trims the Bavarians' lead to 14 points ahead of Tuesday's home European match against the Ukrainian champions. "We started well and we were really up for it," said Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp, whose team drew 2-2 at Donetsk in the away leg a fortnight ago. "After we went 3-1 up, the game was over, but it was an attacking spectacle and a good match to watch." Poland striker Robert Lewandowski, who had only been allowed to play on Friday after the German Football Association (DFB) reduced his three-match ban, scored twice in the first-half as the hosts raced into a 2-0 lead after 21 minutes. Norway striker Mohammed Abdellaoue pulled a goal back for Hanover on 40 minutes after a mistake in the Dortmund defence, but Lewandowski's back-up, Julian Schieber made sure of the win when he drilled his shot home on 72 minutes. "That was clearly a deserved win from Dortmund," said Hanover coach Mirko Slomka, whose team were trounced 5-1 at Dortmund in the German Cup in December on the previous meeting. "We wanted a different result after the cup defeat, but we didn't get a grip on the game." Schalke, who host Dortmund in next Saturday's Ruhr derby, are up to sixth after they beat Wolfsburg 4-1 with teenage midfielder Julian Draxler, 19, involved in the first three goals. "That was an outstanding performance and thoroughly deserved win," said coach Jens Keller, who enjoyed his first away win since taking charge in December. "We got into the game from the first minute and created a string of chances, we could have taken the lead much earlier." Schalke are still in Champions League contention after their last 16, first leg draw at Galatasaray with the return leg in Gelsenkirchen on March 12.Draxler opened the scoring on 33 minutes, then hit the post with Wolves goalkeeper Diego Benaglio beaten before scoring the third despite the attention of four defenders on 63 minutes. US midfielder Jermaine Jones picked up his fifth yellow card, meaning he will miss next Saturday's Dortmund clash before Draxler then set up the fourth on 79 for Peru's Jefferson Farfan to slam his shot home. Dutch striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar hit the fourth on 86 minutes for his first goal in eight games. Bremen suffered their third straight defeat, dropping to 13th, after they suffered a 1-0 win at home to Augsburg, who remain third from bottom, while Nuremberg moved up to 12th with a 1-1 draw at home against Freiburg. Hamburg drop to seventh after their 1-1 draw at home against bottom side Greuther Fuerth while third-placed Bayer Leverkusen host mid-table Stuttgart at home on Saturday night. On Friday, Moechengladbach went eighth after picking up their first win in seven games thanks to Luuk de Jong's goal with a 1-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt, who remain fourth despite having now gone five games without scoring. From: AFP