Germany: Dortmund cruises of strength of Rues' hat trick

Marco Reus (front) scored twice in two minutes as Borussia Dortmund remained second in the Bundesliga.

Lars Baron/Getty Images

BERLIN (AP) -- Borussia Dortmund beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 at home with a hat trick from Marco Reus in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

Dortmund remained second, 15 points behind Bayern Munich, and a point ahead of Bayer Leverkusen, which beat Augsburg 2-1.

"I'm much happier that we won the game,'' Reus said. "Frankfurt are a very strong team.''

Frankfurt goalkeeper Kevin Trapp denied Reus in the fourth minute, but the Germany winger made no mistake four minutes later when international teammate Mario Goetze sprung the offside trap with a superb pass.

Reus scored again two minutes later when Mats Hummels intercepted a loose pass and set him up to shoot inside the far post through Trapp's legs.

Frankfurt received a lifeline in the 31st when Julian Schieber was sent off for a second yellow card for catching Bastian Oczipka's face with his elbow. The striker had been given a rare start due to Robert Lewandowski's three-game ban for being sent off the week before.

"The red card was tough to take, especially after the trip to Donetsk,'' said Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp, referring to Wednesday's 2-2 draw with Shakhtar in the Champions League. "But we reacted brilliantly. It was a really strong performance.''

Reus completed his first hat trick in the 65th when Goetze drew in two defenders and the goalkeeper before pulling the ball back for the 23-year-old to curl the ball to the unguarded net. Ilkay Guendogan, who was outstanding throughout, initiated the move with a perfectly timed ball for Goetze.

"The goals weren't bad,'' Klopp joked.

Fourth-place Frankfurt also finished with 10 men after Takashi Inui received his second yellow in the 74th.

"Reus and Goetze are first-class players,'' Frankfurt coach Armin Veh said. "Dortmund has a great team, which actually has too few points.''

Earlier, Michel Bastos scored twice to salvage a 2-2 draw for Schalke at Mainz, offering embattled coach Jens Keller some respite before Wednesday's Champions League game at Galatasaray.

Mainz, which knocked Schalke out of the German Cup in Keller's first game last December, opened the scoring through Andreas Ivanschitz in the 27th minute, when Nicolai Mueller eluded three defenders on the right to set him up.

Bastos equalized with a simple tap-in from fellow winter signing Raffael's cross in the 41st.

Mainz defender Zdenek Pospech shot inside the far post in the 63rd, only for Bastos to do likewise to equalize again with eight minutes remaining. It was the Brazilian's third goal in as many games since joining on loan from Lyon.

Schalke has only one win from 14 games across all competitions. Keller, who took over after Huub Stevens was dismissed following a string of indifferent results, spoke before the game of "a curse'' affecting his side.

Leverkusen remained third after Stefan Kiessling scored his 15th goal of the season with a header from Gonzalo Castro's free kick in the 26th, and then set up Lars Bender to kill off Augsburg's spirited resistance with 15 minutes remaining.

Sascha Moelders scored a last-minute consolation for the relegation-threatened visitors.

Elsewhere, Freiburg held on for a 3-2 win at Werder Bremen, Rafael van der Vaart struck to give Hamburger SV a 1-0 win at home over Borussia Moenchengladbach, and Fortuna Duesseldorf beat bottom side Greuther Fuerth 1-0.

Hamburg followed last week's win over Dortmund by moving to sixth, thanks to Van der Vaart's spectacular 25-meter (yard) strike in the 24th against a Moenchengladbach side possibly feeling the effects from Thursday's 3-3 Europa League draw at Lazio.

In Bremen, Max Kruse scored for Freiburg with a fine strike in the 36th, only for Kevin de Bruyne to set up Nils Petersen three minutes later.

Bremen's Aleksandar Ignjovski brought down Daniel Caligiuri in the 53rd, and the midfielder dusted himself off to maintain his 100 percent record from the spot with his sixth successful Bundesliga penalty.

Petersen equalized again in the 65th when defender Mattias Ginter slipped at the crucial moment, but Ginter atoned by scoring the winner in the 71st - after both sides hit the post.

"I don't want to praise (them) too much,'' said Freiburg coach Christian Streich as the modest club consolidated fifth place.

An 18th-minute goal from Axel Bellinghausen was enough for Duesseldorf, which missed an early penalty through Dani Schahin.

Fuerth's Hungarian winter signing Joszef Varga was sent off with a second yellow card in the 38th.