Dortmund extend unbeaten run

Jakub Blaszczykowski celebrates his goal

Borussia Dortmund cruised to a win over Bayer Leverkusen to extend their unbeaten record to 31, just three games short of an entire season, and move up to third in the table.

Mats Hummels put Jurgen Klopp's men in front in the 29th minute before Jakub Blaszczykowski added a second 10 minutes later.

Robert Lewandowski then wrapped up victory in a one-sided encounter in the 78th minute.

Under the watching eyes of German chancellor Angela Merkel, and over 80,000 other fans inside the Westfalenstadion, the home side set about getting back to winning ways.

A 1-1 draw at Nurnberg a fortnight ago had put Dortmund two points behind Bayern Munich in the table and, even at such an early stage of the season, they could ill-afford to lose any further ground.

They needed nearly half an hour to break Leverkusen down, though, but they edged ahead in the 29th minute.

Marcel Schmelzer had to hear a lot of criticism over his performance for Germany on Tuesday, but there were no complaints from any of his team-mates as he sent in a corner which was met by Hummels at the far post with a header into the ground which bounced into the roof of the net.

Ten minutes later, Blaszczykowski made it two from Lukasz Piszczek's low cross. Mario Gotze cleverly dummied the ball as it crossed the penalty area, finding Blaszczykowski in space to stroke the ball into the half unguarded goal.

Lewandowski made sure of the points in the 78th minute, getting the slightest of touches with his head to Marco Reus' free-kick to send the ball past Marc-Andre ter Stegen and complicate matters for his namesake Sascha Lewandowski, Leverkusen's joint-coach.

He and Sami Hyypia were unable to find a solution and will have five days to put things right before Leverkusen start their Europa League campaign against Metalist Kharkiv.

Dortmund are in action in the Champions League on Tuesday, and this kind of form will be a warning to their opponents Ajax.