Frankfurt beat struggling Dortmund in Bundesliga

Eintracht Frankfurt made it three wins on the bounce after inflicting the third successive defeat on Borussia Dortmund in the opening match of the 18th round in Bundesliga on Friday, reported Xinhua.

The Eagles started brightly and should have opened the scoring two minutes into the game after a moment of madness from Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel, but Hugo Larsson couldn't break the deadlock from 11 meters.

Dortmund almost broke the deadlock seven minutes later, but Serhou Guirassy's close-range header hit the woodwork at the far post.

The opening goal came at the other end of the pitch in the 18th minute when Rasmus Kristensen raced down the right wing and rolled across, Hugo Ekitike tapped in from a central position.

Frankfurt missed the chance to double their lead in the 22nd minute when Ansgar Knauff's curling shot hit the inside of the post.

Dortmund lacked ideas to test the Frankfurt defence, while the host continued to waste chances, with Ekitike shooting over from 12 meters.

After the restart, Frankfurt stopped attacking and handed control to the visitors, who lacked the ideas to create any meaningful chances in the second half.

However, Frankfurt wasn't done with the scoring and put the result beyond doubt in the closing stages when Can Uzun dispossessed Emre Can before setting up Oscar Hojlund, who kept his cool in front of Kobel to make it two in stoppage time.

The result lifts third-placed Eintracht Frankfurt to within two points of second-placed Bayer Leverkusen who hosts Borussia Monchengladbach on Saturday, while Borussia Dortmund remains 10th.

"The boys did well. It's always a difficult game, especially against Dortmund. We should have scored the second goal earlier in the second half, but we defended well. In the end, I'm happy we kept a clean sheet and got the three points," said Frankfurt midfielder Mario Gotze.

"At the end of the day we didn't get a result. Second half was decent, but it must be a standard. We didn't win, we can't buy anything for the second half. We're not getting good results at the moment," said Dortmund midfielder Pascal Gross.