Borussia Dortmund eased to a third successive Bundesliga victory as 10-man Eintracht Frankfurt were beaten 4-1 at Signal Iduna Park.
Thomas Tuchel’s side made up for their midweek home defeat to PAOK in the Europa League thanks to strikes from Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mats Hummels and Adrian Ramos.
Frankfurt, who have now won on just one of their last 19 visits to Dortmund, had taken an early lead through Alexander Meier but the visitors’ chances of causing an upset suffered a huge blow when Slobodan Medojevic was sent off for a dubious second yellow card on the stroke of half-time.
The incident led to a penalty, which Aubameyang sent wide, while the division’s most prolific frontman also had two goals disallowed. Eintracht should have been further embarrassed but Mkhitaryan somehow nodded over the top of an unguarded net from six yards out in the second period.
The only negative to come out of the game from a Dortmund point of view was the early withdrawal of Marco Reus due to injury.
Dortmund started the match with intensity, as Reus and Ilkay Gundogan both forced early saves from visiting goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky, but, with their first attack, Frankfurt took the lead in the sixth minute.
A long clearance from Hradecky picked out Haris Seferovic and the striker teed up Meier, who beat Roman Burki to the bottom left-hand corner with a fine finish from 20 yards.
The hosts had the ball in the back of the net two minutes later but Aubameyang’s tap-in was ruled out following an offside in the build-up, as the relentless opening to the clash continued.
It took until midway through the first period for Dortmund to equalise. Hummels found Aubameyang’s run with a scything pass and the forward crossed for Mkhitaryan to tap in from two yards out.
Aubameyang had another effort disallowed eight minutes before half-time, again due to an offside, while Hradecky saved well at his near post from Gundogan moments later as Dortmund repeatedly opened up their guests.
The home side were gifted a golden chance to breach the Frankfurt defences for a second time in the 45th minute, when Medojevic was adjudged to have fouled Gonzalo Castro as the midfielder was primed to shoot.
Referee Christian Dingert pointed to the spot, dismissing Medojevic for a second bookable offence.
However, Aubameyang - the Bundesliga’s top scorer - fluffed his lines, firing wide from 12 yards to leave the two teams level at the break.
It took just over 10 minutes of the second half for the Gabonese to make up for his mistake. Gundogan’s clever lofted pass found substitute Shinji Kagawa, who crossed for Aubameyang to slide in his 18th goal of the campaign.
With Frankfurt struggling to deal with their man disadvantage, Dortmund extended their lead in the 61st minute. After Mkhitaryan’s initial effort was blocked, Hummels lashed home the loose ball from 12 yards out.
Mkhitaryan somehow failed to head into an open goal with 20 minutes left, after he was teed up by Castro, before Ramos guided home Lukasz Piszczek's right-wing cross with a fine side-footed finish in the 86th minute to wrap up the points for the home side.
