MARCO Reus fired a hat trick as Borussia Dortmund came from two goals down to win 3-2 at Stuttgart on Saturday afternoon.

Reus struck one before the interval and twice after to hand Dortmund a nail-biting victory over their relegation-threatened hosts, who had led through goals from Christian Gentner and Martin Harnik. Stuttgart´s cause was not helped by the dismissal of Georg Niedermeier, having conceded the penalty which led to Reus´ second goal.

The visitors´ win moved them back a point above Schalke, who had temporarily taken over second place in the Bundesliga standings with a 2-0 triumph over Hertha Berlin on Friday night. Dortmund were slack in the opening exchanges and handed the Swabians a route to goal as they aimed to pull clear of the relegation play-off position.

Oliver Kirch was dispossessed on the edge of his own box after eight minutes, gifting Gentner the ball in a good area and the midfielder expertly curled past Roman Weidenfeller. Dortmund had to wait until the 14th minute to get their first sighting of Sven Ulreich bar the pre-match handshakes. Robert Lewandowski had a shot deflected wide, before Kevin Grosskreutz missed from close range.

But Huub Stevens´ side were looking sprightly on the break and added a second goal on 22 minutes, Ibrahima Traore leaving Erik Durm for dead and giving Austrian forward Harnik an empty goal to tap home. Five minutes later, it was another counter-attack that left Dortmund with some problems. Troare´s raw pace set up a chance for Ibisevic, but he could only hit the side-netting.

Immediately, at the other end, Dortmund were back in the match. Germany international Reus finished from inside the box after a neat pass by Jonas Hofmann, who was one of the players brought in for this game. Just passed the half-hour mark and there was more evidence of Dortmund´s profligacy. Henrikh Mkhitaryan was the villain in midweek for missing a gilt-edged chance against Schalke - and the same applied here.

The Armenian attacking midfielder looked to place a shot into the opposite corner of Ulreich´s goal, but he screwed the shot wide. Eleven minutes after half-time, Dortmund were unlucky not to level when Lewandowski roamed down the right flank and sent a right-footed effort crashing against the post.

There were still defensive concerns for Jurgen Klopp, with Kirch lucky not to have been shown a second yellow card on more than one occasion. The utility man was subbed on the hour mark, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang coming on.

But the match then hinged on one moment. Lewandowski got the wrong side of Niedermeier and was hauled down by the Stuttgart defender, who was shown a straight red card. Reus - who only came back to match action 10 days ago after injury - fired home from the spot on 66 minutes to put Dortmund back on level terms.

And the 24-year-old sealed a memorable afternoon with the winning goal seven minutes from time, capping off a fine performance at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. Aubameyang was the architect, breaking down the left-hand side and cutting back for Reus to slot home his third goal of the afternoon.