Haaland still scoring as Bundesliga returns
Erling Haaland's phenomenal goal scoring form continued as Borussia Dortmund comprehensively defeated Schalke 4-0 in their first game since the Bundesliga was stopped because of coronavirus.
Haaland picked up where he left off by scoring the league's first goal, and his 13th in 12 appearances for Dortmund, after a two-month suspension in a Revierderby played out at an empty Signal Iduna Park.
Raphael Guerreiro doubled the host's lead just before the interval after an error from the out-of-sorts Markus Schubert, and Thorgan Hazard beat the 21-year-old goalkeeper the 48th minute.
Guerreiro bagged a second after a one-two with Haaland as Dortmund closed the gap on leader Bayern Munich, which faces Union Berlin on Monday (AEST), to one point.
Giovanni Reyna was set to make his first senior start for BVB but sustained an injury in the warm-up and was replaced by Hazard, with Jadon Sancho remaining among the substitutes, who sat spaced apart and wearing facing masks.
After a high-tempo start Daniel Caligiuri was denied by Roman Burki, the goalkeeper making his 200th appearance for Dortmund, before Haaland opened the scoring.
Julian Brandt's delicate flick released Hazard and his delightful cross in behind the defence was turned home first time by Haaland in the 29th minute, with his team-mates largely keeping their distance during the celebrations.
Lucien Favre's men doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time, sweeping forward after collecting Schubert's poor clearance and seeing Guerreiro drive Brandt's pass across goal and into the bottom-right corner.
Schalke sent Rabbi Matondo and Guido Bergstaller on at the break but they quickly fell further behind when Hazard finished a swift counter-attack by firing past Schubert, who should have done more to keep the effort out.
The hosts moved completely out of sight when Guerreiro stormed forward and finished superbly with the outside of his left foot after an exchange of passes with Haaland in the 63rd minute.
Schalke took advantage of a rule change meaning up to five substitutions can be made but Dortmund had done enough to claim its 800th Bundesliga win in the 180th Revierderby.
Dortmund travels to Wolfsburg next weekend, while Schalke is in action at home to Augsburg.
