Dortmund beat Nurnberg to apply pressure

Borussia Dortmund moved up to second in the Bundesliga, and within nine points of league leaders Bayern Munich, thanks to a comfortable win over Nurnberg. Jakub Blaszczykowski scored twice in the first 21 minutes but Jurgen Klopp's men had to wait until the 88th minute before being assured of the points, when Robert Lewandowski made it three.

The result was rarely in doubt, though, as Dortmund dominated from start to finish, struggling only to find the back of the net more frequently. It could have been a different story had Nurnberg gone ahead with their first attack of the game in the 15th minute.

After weathering an early storm Markus Feulner set up Tomas Pekhart, whose effort was saved well by Weidenfeller, who did even better to prevent Feulner from tucking in the rebound. Their resistance was broken three minutes later, though, when Timo Gebhart was adjudge to have fouled Lukasz Piszczek inside the penalty area.

His Polish compatriot Blaszczykowski took the responsibility from the penalty spot and he made no mistake shooting to the right of Raphael Schafer to put Dortmund ahead. He struck again three minutes later when he was left unmarked to stroke in Mario Gotze's low cross.

The expected opening of the floodgates failed to materialise, though, largely because of Dortmund's poor finishing rather than Nurnberg's defending. Lewandowski was guilty of missing the best chances for the home side, who continued to peg Nurnberg back inside their own half.

A rare shot from distance from Feulner on the hour mark was the last time Nurnberg dared take aim at Dortmund's goal. And the home side finally got the third goal to reward their persistence in the 88th minute, with Lewandowski hammering his shot high into the roof of the net after being set up for his easiest chance of the night by Marco Reus.