Beier and Guirassy seal key victory for Dortmund
Maximilian Beier starred for Borussia Dortmund as it defeated 10-man FC Koln 2-1 at RheinEnergieStadion to get its Bundesliga title chase back on track.
Beier assisted Serhou Guirassy's opener before scoring Dortmund's second on the hour mark, but Jakub Kaminski caused a nervy finish after halving the deficit late on.
It was Koln who started on the front foot, with Isak Bergmann Johannesson seeing two efforts blocked in quick succession inside the first minute before Youssoupha Niang forced a full-stretch save from Gregor Kobel.
But Dortmund took the lead in the 16th minute when Beier headed a half-cleared corner back into the box, and Guirassy managed to keep himself onside before prodding the ball past Marvin Schwabe.
Things were then made harder for the home side when Manchester City loanee Jahmai Simpson-Pusey was shown a straight red card for a poor challenge on Beier in first-half stoppage-time.
Niko Kovac's side made sure to capitalise on its numerical advantage in the second half, with Beier playing a give-and-go with Julian Brandt before curling into the bottom-right corner.
Koln never let up, highlighted by Kaminski's powerful strike to beat Kobel in the 88th minute, but it could not snatch a point from the hopeful Bundesliga title challenger.
