Paco Alcacer (1st L) of Borussia Dortmund celebrates after scoring during the Bundesliga match between Borussia Dortmund and FC Augsburg at Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany, October 6, 2018. Dortmund won 4-3. (Xinhua/Joachim Bywaletz)
BERLIN, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Borussia Dortmund extended their winning run after beating Augsburg 4-3 to defend their top spot in the standings at the 7th round in Bundesliga on Saturday.
The "BVB" have reaped their fourth straight win in all competitions as substitute Paco Alcacer provided a second-half hat rick to overpower Augsburg single-handedly.
However, things started other than expected as Augsburg secured a perfect start against the front-runners after Alfred Finnbogason tapped home a deflected shot from close range in the 22nd minute.
Dortmund responded with frenetic attacks as Achraf Hakimi and Dan-Axel Zagadou tested Augsburg goalkeeper Andreas Luthe with promising efforts.
Nevertheless, the hosts had to wait until the 62nd minute before their efforts paid off as summer signing Alcacer, who was fielded two minutes earlier, completed Jadon Sancho's build up work to level the scores.
Augsburg regrouped and grabbed the lead again in the 71st minute when Philipp Max punished Dortmund's poor defense from inside the box.
Dortmund kept it bowling and rallied back through Alcacer, who restored parity following a free kick from Raphael Guerreiro, in the 80th minute.
Lucien Favre's men continued on the front foot and secured the lead for the first time as Mario Goetze capitalized on Hakimi's through ball to beat Augsburg's keeper Andreas Luthe from sharp angle four minutes later.
Resilient Augsburg still remained unimpressed and bonced back after Michael Gregoritsch headed home Max' corner kick to make it 3-3 in the 87th minute.
It looked like both teams would settle for a share of the spoils but Dortmund had the last laugh, as Alcacer lifted a free kick over the wall into the top-right angle to give Dortmund a late 4-3 victory in the dying seconds of the game.
With the result, Dortmund stay atop the standings whereas Augsburg slipped from the 8th to the 9th position.
Elsewhere, Bobby Wood's first-half brace smoothed the way for Hannover's 3-1 victory over struggling Stuttgart.
Schalke reaped their second victory in the league after easing 2-0 past Dusseldorf on the second-half goals from Weston McKennie and Gudio Burgstaller and Hertha Berlins shared the points with Mainz following a goalless draw.
