Borussia Dortmund got Thomas Tuchel’s Bundesliga campaign off to a flying start with a 4-0 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach.
First half goals by Marco Reus and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as well as a Henrikh Mkhitaryan brace gave Dortmund three points to kick their season off on a positive note in front of their home crowd.
Both teams started their 2015-16 German season in the DFB-Pokal. Both sides were on the road in their opening matchups with Monchengladbach winning 4-1 of St. Pauli led by a Lars Stindl brace, and Dortmund winning 2-0 over Chemnitzer.
Some team news for hosts who went with Roman Burki in the net over his name sake Roman Weidenfeller in the opener. Major blunders for the latter saw him lose that starting role plus the fact that Burki is ten years his junior made it a proper shout for him to get the starting nod.
Early, nervy moments for the host but they strike twice in six minutes
In the first five minutes, the visitors were the ones getting some shots away via Jantschke and Xhaka. After that though, pure dominance from the home side. A goal was ruled out for offside by Mkhitaryan as he picked on a splitting ball from Shinji Kagawa and neatly curled it home past Yann Sommer.
The visitors were lucky to have that ruled out but were back on the prowl again. A sweeping pass from Raffael found Drmic, but Marcel Schmelzer was there as he slid in to deny the fantastic scoring chance.
Dortmund struck first on 16 minutes thanks to Marco Reus. Kagawa latched on to a pass from Mats Hummels and fed it into the German international for him to tee up as he beat Sommer to his near post. Just a few minutes later, Aubameyang headed home a Schmelzer cross to the far post to double the hosts’ lead. All the progress that Gladbach had made in those opening minutes were ruined by a couple of goals just minutes apart.
Mkhitaryan makes it three
The attacking midfield three or Reus, Mkhitaryan, and Kagawa were running riot on the visitors as they created more chances as they kept looking to feed Aubameyang more shots. The Gabon international would tee up an assist this time as he found the Armenian international after being released onto the break with half a pitch to run into.
His deadly breakaway speed made it next to impossible for anyone to catch him as he unselfishly laid it off to the Armenian to make it 3-0 and put the game to bed in the first half.
On an ensuing corner, Kagawa sends in a cross which Hummels gets a head but was cleared off the line by Raffael to avoid this match going from bad to worse for the visitors. No stoppage time after the half where the hosts were running away with it 3-0.
The Armenian bags a brace to add to Monchengladbach's misery
Just seconds after the second half whistle, Reus continued his dominating first half presence into the second by flying down the heart of the Gladbach defense and nearly scoring again. He would add an assist to his tally by picking out Mkhitaryan from the right-hand side as he coolly slotted it home for a Dortmund fourth and his brace.
Raffael and Traore finally get something going for the visitors with some nice link-up play between them before Mats Hummels blasted out for a corner but that amounted to nothing. It was just that kind of night for them.
Kagawa nearly made it five after some latching onto a return ball from the Gabon striker but lashed it wide. Lucien Favre made the first substitutions Patrick Herrmann on for Ibrahima Traore then a few minutes later brought on Thorgan Hazard on for Josip Drmic. Xhaka was first into the books as there weren’t many more clear-cut chances with Dortmund just trying to kill off the game.
At the full-time whistle, it was 4-0 to Borussia Dortmund. A comprehensive performance for the host and a dream start for Tuchel’s side whose dreadful start last season did them in at the end of year. Favre’s side needs to head back to the drawing board after that matchup where they were dominated in every aspect of the game.