A Marco Reus brace guided Borussia Dortmund to a 3-0 hammering of Tottenham Hotspur - effectively rendering the second leg of the Europa League last 16 tie meaningless.
Flourishing BVB
Mauricio Pochettino's men were given a footballing lesson in Germany tonight as Dortmund produced wave after wave of beautiful attacking football, however they did take half an hour to take the lead through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
By far the simplest of the Bundesliga side's goals, Marcel Schmelzer overlapped on the left before hanging a cross over for Aubameyang, who rose above Ben Davies in the middle to power a header home into the side of the net from which it came.
Dortmund then had to wait another 30 minutes for their second goal in front of the yellow wall. A short corner on the right hand ended with Gonzalo Castro whipping the ball into the box, where substitute Neven Subotic glanced it onto the far post for Reus to rifle into the roof of the net from point blank range.
However, the best was saved for last in terms of goals for the team second in Germany's top flight as Reus bagged his brace. Aubameyang played a nice little ball to Castro who pinged a pass over Toby Alderweireld to pick out Reus in the inside left position, and he calmly slotted home with the inside of his foot.
Out of their depth
The seven changes made by Pochettino for this game were simply too many, and it really showed as a lot of Spurs players looked out of their depth on the pitch at Signal Iduna Park. Dortmund's wing-back system worked a treat as Erik Durm down the right and Schmelzer down the left constantly created space for the likes of Reus and Aubameyang inside.
The earliest warning signs arrived after just six minutes when Durm found himself in behind the Spurs defence after Aubameyang slotted the ball through. That should have been the opener there, but he fired past the far post after Hugo Lloris had rushed out.
Dortmund's top scorer from Gabon already had the ball in the net 15 minutes before the official opener as he turned a rebounded effort home following a fantastic Castro strike, which Lloris spilled. However, luckily for Spurs - and their 'keeper - the offside flag went up.
The second half continued in much the same vain as Castro latched onto the rebound of an Aubameyang saved effort, however, unlike the 33 goal striker, the German midfielder could only hit the post from a tight angle.
Rare strays forward
It's hard to think of any real Tottenham opportunities. There was an early shot on target through Christian Eriksen, however his effort was tame and straight at Roman Weidenfeller. There were similar efforts from Heung-Min Son throughout the game, albeit ones which never looked like troubling the German international.
The closest Spurs really came was around 10 minutes from time when Erik Lamela, off the bench, whipped in a ball from the right and, if it was met by a touch from Alderweireld, it might have given Spurs hope with an away goal to take into the second leg.
Otherwise, there was nothing else to write home about for the North London club, bar a couple of half hearted penalty appeals at various points in the game - all of which were strongly waved away by the Turkish referee.