Dortmund cruise past Leverkusen to reclaim top spot

BERLIN (Reuters) - Impressive Borussia Dortmund cruised past Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 on Sunday to reclaim top spot in the Bundesliga and stretch their perfect start to five wins out of five league games. Champions Bayern had beaten Darmstadt 98 3-0 on Saturday to move up to 15 points with their fifth victory but Dortmund's win, their 11th consecutive in all competitions, put them back ahead on goal difference. Despite the absence of attacking midfielder Marco Reus, who was left on the bench following his recovery from a fractured toe, Dortmund lay siege from the start and broke the deadlock in the 19th minute. Shinji Kagawa's 50-metre cross picked out Jonas Hofmann, who pounced on a misjudged exit by keeper Bernd Leno to slot in. Leverkusen, looking tired and lacking their usual spark after their midweek 4-1 Champions League win over BATE Borisov, should have levelled with Javier Hernandez but his close-range effort six minutes after the restart was blocked by Roman Buerki. Instead it was the Ruhr valley club, transformed this season under coach Thomas Tuchel after a disappointing 2014/15 campaign, that scored again with Japan international Kagawa, in stellar form this season, flicking in to complete a quick passing move in the 58th. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang converted his third penalty in the last two league games to complete their comfortable win and take his league goal tally to six and 10 in all competitions. "We knew we needed a top performance today and we oozed precision," Tuchel told reporters. "We are getting regular confirmation that we have real competitors in the team. We should not spare any thoughts about what our limits could be." Dortmund's Gonzalo Castro almost punished his former club but his low drive hit the post in the final minute with Leverkusen suffering their third straight loss in the league to remain in 13th spot on six points. Schalke 04 needed the touch of talented teenager Leroy Sane to overcome struggling VfB Stuttgart 1-0 and move up to fourth place while leaving their opponents in joint last place after their fifth loss in five games. Stuttgart, German champions in 2007, were by far the better side throughout creating at least a dozen clear scoring chances, but lacking the killer touch and being repeatedly denied by Schalke keeper Ralf Faehrmann they extended their worst ever start to the Bundesliga. Schalke, with a total of 10 attempts on and off target compared to Stuttgart's 26, required one quick break to score with 19-year-old Sane latching on to a deep pass from Max Meyer, shaking off one defender and firing in with his left foot. Stuttgart are on zero points along with Borussia Moenchengladbach who have also lost their opening five league matches. Coach Lucien Favre resigned on Sunday as a result of their poor run of results. (Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; editing by Pritha Sarkar and Martyn Herman)