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Sancho: This one's for you, granny

Dortmund starlet Sancho dedicates derby winner to grandmother, who died last week

Jadon Sancho sealed Borussia Dortmund's first away win at Schalke 04 for five years on Saturday as the Bundesliga leaders ran out 2-1 winners in the Ruhr Derby - then dedicated the winning goal to his grandmother who passed away in mid-week.

The England winger, 18, slotted the winner 16 minutes from time at the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, then pointed to the heavens before being buried under a pile of celebrating team-mates.

"The goal was for my grandmother, who died recently," he told reporters after netting his sixth goal of the season.

It has been an emotional few days for the teenager who flew to England to be with his family in mid-week, returning to Germany the day before the derby before netting a classy winner.

"He really wanted to play," said Dortmund coach Lucien Favre, while sports director Michael Zorc praised the "exceptional performance" by the England international.

Thomas Delaney's seventh-minute header for Dortmund had been cancelled out by a Daniel Caligiuri penalty just after the hour mark when Sancho struck, deftly rolling home following a beautiful one-two with Raphael Guerreiro.

"The second goal by Sancho was worked out incredibly well - we do things like that in training," said Dortmund captain Marco Reus after his team's fifth straight league win.

"This victory gives us a lot of self-confidence and strength for the next matches.

"We want to remain unbeaten."

Dortmund preserved their record as the only unbeaten team in Germany's top tier after 14 games, while Schalke are now down to 14th, just three points from the bottom three despite having reached the last 16 of the Champions League.

"We lacked punch," admitted Schalke coach Domenico Tedesco.

"If you score only penalties in the last three games, then things will be difficult."

Tedesco - who already had forwards Mark Uth, Franco di Santo and Breel Embolo sidelined by injury - then saw Guido Burgstaller limp off, leaving him without a striker and forcing him to play midfielder Weston McKennie and left-back Hamza Mendyl up front.

"We went off the boil in the second half, because they played some weird football," said Reus, referring to Schalke's reshuffling due to injury, "but we showed the right mentality in the end - it was fun."

BAYERN VICTORY

Dortmund are nine points clear of defending champions Bayern Munich, who defeated Nuremberg 3-0.

Robert Lewandowski scored twice in the opening half-hour before Franck Ribery sealed the points 11 minutes into the second half.

The Bavarian side put their October and November slump behind them with a third straight victory in all competitions as they crushed Nuremberg.

"We didn't let anything get through (our defence) over the 90 minutes and hit the woodwork twice," said coach Nico Kovac, whose position was under threat just two weeks ago.

"I am happy we have finally kept our opponent goalless," added Kovac, after his side's first clean sheet in the league since late September. - AFP

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