Dortmund drop out of German title race

Bayern Munich restored their three-point lead at the top of the German Bundesliga on Saturday with their best performance of the season, a 5-0 win over struggling Fortuna Dusseldorf, writes Rupert Metcalf. However, the European Cup finalists Borussia Dortmund, missing several first-team players, saw their hopes of a third successive title end after a 2-0 defeat at Arminia Bielefeld.

With five matches left, Bayern now seem to have only Bayer Leverkusen, 2-1 home winners over Werder Bremen on Friday, to worry about. Bayern were always in command against Fortuna and goals from Christian Nerlinger, Mario Basler, Ruggiero Rizzitelli, Alexander Zickler and Lothar Matthaus (his first for 13 months) sent the Bavarian fans home happy.

Dortmund were never in the game at Bielefeld, whose goals came from Guiseppe Reina and Matthias Breitkreutz, the former Aston Villa forward. Borussia are now six points off the second place which would earn them qualification for next season's European Cup if they lose this year's final in Munich next month against Juventus.

Monaco, the French League leaders, drew 1-1 at home with Marseilles on Saturday. A second-half header from Sylvain Legwinski was all Monaco could manage, after Xavier Gravelaine had opened the scoring before the break. Second-placed Paris St-Germain overwhelmed Nice 5-0 last night.

Bruce Grobbelaar, the Plymouth Argyle goalkeeper, went upfield for a late corner in Harare yesterday but was unable to help his Zimbabwe team- mates find the Angolan net. The 0-0 draw in Group Four of the African World Cup qualifying competition means that Zimbabwe are unable to qualify for France 98.