Borussia Dortmund win three games in a row for the first time this season after beating Stuttgart

Stuttgart 2 Borussia Dortmund 3

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Borussia Dortmund eased fears of relegation after winning three Bundesliga games in a row for the first time this season with a 3-2 win at bottom club Stuttgart.

Jurgen Klopp's team are now 10th in the table after the win, though they have played a game more than every other team in the division, bar Stuttgart, while just four points separate the bottom eight.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang broke the deadlock in the 25th minute, scooping the ball home after Japan midfielder Shinji Kagawa helped it on following some good work from Marco Reus.

Florian Klein equalised with a penalty for the home side, awarded after Nuri Sahin was adjudged to have felled Georg Niedermeier close to the goal-line. Sahin was fortunate not to be sent off if deemed to have stopped a clear goal opportunity.

"I don't know how the referee didn't give a red card there," Stuttgart sports director Robin Dutt said. "Sometime these decisions are very strange."

Kawaga's classy back-heel found Ilkay Gundogan to restore Dortmund's lead with a low shot into the corner of the net five minutes before the break

Reus then pounced on a defensive lapse from Timo Baumgartl to seal the result after rounding the keeper in the 89th minute before Niedermeier headed Stuttgart's consolation in injury time.

Stuttgart fans consoled the 18-year-old Baumgartl after the game.

"At least it's nine points from three games. It's the maximum, you can't ask for more," said Gundogan, who acknowledged that Dortmund, who play Juventus away next week, aren't yet fully clicking, before expressing sympathy for Stuttgart.

"We were bottom ourselves a couple of weeks ago. It's not a nice situation. The head is willing but the body doesn't respond," Gundogan said.

Additional reporting from AP