Players of Dortmund celebrate scoring during the Bundesliga match between Borussia Dortmund and SV Werder Bremen at Singal Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany on Dec. 15, 2018. Dortmund won 2-1. (Xinhua/Joachim Bywaletz)
BERLIN, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Paco Alcacer's and Marco Reus's goals were enough for Borussia Dortmund to seal the autumn championship following a 2-1 victory over resilient Werder Bremen in the 15th round of Bundesliga on Saturday.
The "BVB" grabbed the reins from the kick off and came to their first chance only two minutes into the encounter when Bremen's Davy Klaassen had to defuse Paco Alcacer's effort on the empty target.
Alcacer remained in the thick of things as the Spaniard broke the deadlock for the hosts with 20 minutes played after heading home Raphael Guerreiro's free kick from the right wing.
Dortmund piled on the pressure and were able to double their advantage only seven minutes later when captain Marco Reus finished off a turn over from inside the box into the far post bottom corner.
Werder Bremen regrouped after the 2-0 deficit and reduced the arrears in the 35th minute as Max Kruse drilled a volley into the top right corner to make it 2-1.
The "Green-Whites" continued on the front foot and exchanged attacks with Dortmund after the restart. Max Kruse and Kevin Moehwald came to promising chances before Dortmund's Jadon Sancho and Marco Reus tested Bremen goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka.
The hosts' golden opportunities came in the closing stages as Sancho and Guerreiro forced Pavlenka into action from close range.
Dortmund thought they had restored their two-goal lead but the video assistant referee ruled Mario Goetze's goal offside in the dying seconds of the clash.
"It was a tight affair. Dortmund could have scored more goals but we had our chances as well," Bremen coach Florian Kohfeldt said.
"Autumn championship doesn't mean much to me. Bremen made our life difficult. They are a good team. We created several chances but we did not defend very well," Dortmund's coach Lucien Favre said.
With the 12th victory of the season, front-runners Borussia Dortmund established a nine-point gap to Borussia Monchengladbach and Bayern Munich. Meanwhile, Werder Bremen slipped from the 8th to the 9th spot in the standings.
