Borussia Dortmund ended a recent mini crisis with an emphatic 4-0 triumph over Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday (Saturday AEDT) to move within one point of German Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich.
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Lukasz Piszczek opened the scoring from the edge of the area in the 33rd before the floodgates opened after the break.
Jadon Sancho made it 2-0 five minutes after the restart, Erling Haaland tapped his eighth top-flight goal in five matches since joining in January four minutes later, and Raphael Guerreiro smashed the fourth in the 74th.
It was also good news for Dortmund that they kept a clean sheet after shipping seven goals in two painful defeats last week - 3-2 in the cup at Werder Bremen and 4-3 in the league at Bayer Leverkusen.
"We allowed Frankfurt virtually no chances. We were concentrated. That was a clean sheet effort of the whole team," Dortmund defender Mats Hummels said.
"We don't have to take every risk, given our attacking qualities."
Dortmund have 42 points, one behind Bayern Munich, and ahead of RB Leipzig on goal-difference.
Leipzig host lowly Werder Bremen on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) and Munich are at Cologne on Sunday (Monday AEDT).
Frankfurt, who had no telling chance at all en route to their first defeat after the winter break, remain eighth.
"We beat ourselves after the break. That is deadly against the fast Dortmund attackers. We were too harmless up front," Frankfurt midfielder Sebastian Rode admitted.
Australian Associated Press