BERLIN (Reuters) - Borussia Dortmund teenager Jadon Sancho scored twice in seven minutes on Saturday to help his team to a nervous 2-1 victory over Mainz 05 that sent them provisionally back to the top of the Bundesliga.
Sancho's goals were enough to lift Dortmund, who were dominant in the first half but inexplicably eased off after the break, to 66 points with five games left to play. They are two points ahead of champions Bayern Munich, who face Fortuna Duesseldorf on Sunday.
Dortmund, eager to make amends for last week's 5-0 demolition by Bayern, put in a whirlwind start and Mainz almost scored an own goal when Danny Latza deflected a Mario Goetze cutback onto the post in the sixth minute.
Jacob Bruun Larsen twice came close before Goetze tried it again in the 17th minute and found England international Sancho at the far post who drilled in for the lead.
The 19-year-old doubled the score in similar fashion in the 24th minute, firing in a Thomas Delaney assist for his 10th goal of the campaign.
Instead of scoring again, the hosts slackened after the break, allowing Mainz, who had hit the post on the stroke of halftime, to come forward.
The visitors hit the woodwork again with Karim Onisiwo in the 63rd minute and cut the deficit with Robin Quaison's deserved goal in the 83rd before Dortmund keeper Roman Buerki made a triple point-blank save in the 87th to protect Dortmund's three points.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Pritha Sarkar)