England forward Jadon Sancho capped a blistering individual performance with a second-half hat-trick which helped Borussia Dortmund to a 6-1 win at Paderborn on Sunday and kept alive their slim Bundesliga title hopes.

The result left Dortmund second on 60 points from 29 games with five rounds of matches remaining, seven behind champions and league leaders Bayern Munich, while Paderborn remained rooted to the foot of the standings on 19 points.

With striker Erling Haaland sidelined by a knee injury, the visitors missed a string of chances in the first half but Sancho lit up the second as Dortmund ran riot. Thorgan Hazard, who took Haaland’s place up front, gave Dortmund a 54th-minute lead from close range after keeper Leopold Zingerle failed to deal with an Emre Can cross from the left.

Sancho made it 2-0 with a simple tap-in from two metres, three minutes later, before an Uwe Hunemeier penalty briefly rekindled Paderborn’s challenge in the 72nd minute. It turned out to be a false dawn as Sancho scored Dortmund’s third two minutes later with a fine left-foot shot from inside the penalty area and Paderborn fell apart in the closing stages.

Earlier, Marcus Thuram and Alassane Plea combined to score three goals as Borussia Moenchengladbach crushed Union Berlin 4-1 to reclaim third place.

The 22-year-old Thuram headed in at the far post from fellow Frenchman Plea’s cross in the 41st minute after Florian Neuhaus had put the hosts ahead in the 17th.