Borussia Dortmund got back to winning ways on Friday with a 2-0 victory at Mainz 05, as coach Thomas Tuchel returned to his former club.
It was the first time Tuchel had been back to the Coface Arena since quitting as Mainz boss at the end of the 2013-14 season.
German international Marco Reus opened the scoring for Dortmund after 18 minutes, but then missed a penalty just after half-time.
Armenian striker Henrik Mkhitaryan made the points safe for the visitors when he converted Dortmund’s second goal on 82 minutes as news of the club’s former coach Jurgen Klopp dominated European football news in the buildup.
Klopp, who led Dortmund to back-to-back German titles in 2011 and 2012, as well as the 2013 Champions League final, takes charge of Liverpool on Saturday in his English debut at Tottenham.
With Tuchel very much the new man in favour at Dortmund, Friday’s victory ended a poor run of two draws and a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena a fortnight ago.
Dortmund move within four points of Bayern, having played a game more, while Mainz slip to ninth after their fifth defeat of the campaign.
Dortmund’s Gabon winger Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang failed to extend his record run of having scored in all previous eight league games this season.
Bayern put their perfect record of eight wins from eight matches on the line away to Werder Bremen in the pick of Saturday’s fixtures while Schalke and Hertha Berlin meet in a battle of third and fourth-placed sides.