Berlin: Dortmund came from behind to overcome Mainz 4-2 with four second-half goals at the opener of the 21st round of Bundesliga.
Juergen Klopp's men earned their second straight victory to relieve their relegation worries for the moment. Mainz grabbed the lead but were unable to keep up the pace, Xinhua reported Friday.
Both sides staged an offensively minded and fast-paced encounter, in which Mainz shocked the hosts with the opener, with less than a minute into the game. Dortmund's goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller made a fisted clearance into the path of Elkin Soto, who lobbed the ball into the open goal from 18 metres.
Dortmund piled on the pressure but Mainz' well-positioned defence denied the equalizer within the first half. Things, however, changed after the break when Neven Subotic restored parity with a header following a corner by Marcel Schmelzer at the 50th minute.
Mainz conceded another goal only five minutes later as Dortmund turned the tide through Marco Reus, who capitalized on a through ball by new arrival Kevin Kampl.
The visitors shook off the 2-1 deficit and equalised the scores with their next chance as Yunus Malli made it two all in the 57th minute.
Dortmund grabbed a 3-2 lead in the 71st minute, when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang marked his 8th goal of the season with the help of a pass from Reus.
Dortmund rounded off their performance with a fourth goal in the second half. Nuri Sahin made use of a dead ball situation to poke home from very close range to make it 4-2 on the scoreboard.
With the second win in row, Dortmund climbed from 16th to 14th position and Mainz stayed at 13th place on the table.
The following fixtures are scheduled on Saturday: front-runners Bayern Munich host Hamburg, Leverkusen face runner up Wolfsburg, Monchengladbach meet Cologne, Hoffenheim see last placed Stuttgart, Bremen clash Augsburg and Frankfurt encounter third placed Schalke.
