Borussia Dortmund manager was Thomas Tuchel “extremely satisfied” after his side’s 3-1 win over Werder Bremen at the Weserstadion on Saturday.
The victory was Dortmund’s fifth consecutive win after the humiliating 5-1 loss at Bayern Munich earlier this month.
Germany international winger Marco Reus opened the scoring after nine minutes before Anthony Ujah leveled the scoring just after the half-hour mark.
But Henrikh Mkhitaryan gave the visitors their second lead of the game just before half-time, and Reus completed his brace in the second-half to move BVB to within five points of Bundesliga leaders Bayern.
Player Ratings: BVB
GK: Roman Bürki – 6
LB: Joo-Ho Park – 7
CB: Mats Hummels – 9
CB: Sokratis Papastathopoulos – 7
RB: Matthias Ginter – 8
CDM: Julian Weigl – 8
CDM: Ilkay Gündogan – 8
LAM: Marco Reus – 9*
CAM: Shinji Kagawa – 7
RAM: Henrikh Mkhitaryan – 9
ST: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 7
* Man of the Match
Quotes
After Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Bremen, Tuchel told the club’s official website: “In the first half we had a few difficulties and were not able to stop all of Bremen’s counter-attacks early on.
“Taking a 2-1 lead in at the break was definitely a bit lucky.
“However, I’m extremely happy with the second 45 minutes. We never lost our concentration and created gilt-edged chances to score time and time again. I am very, very satisfied. I’d like to pay a huge compliment to my team.”
But despite closing Bayern’s lead at the summit of the Bundesliga table to just five points, Tuchel has insisted his side only focus on their place in the standings.
“When we look at the table, we only look at ourselves,” added Tuchel. “The signals that I am getting from the team are that we are capable of focusing on ourselves and ourselves alone. We need to keep going – we haven’t won anything yet.”
Lastly, the BVB boss took some time to praise Marco Reus’ man-of-the-match performance: “He has always shown how hard-working he is – even in phases where things have not gone so well. Marco has always radiated self-confidence because he knows what he can do. The fact things are going so well now is a great feeling for all of us.”
What’s Next
Dortmund, backed by the bookmakers at 7/1 to win the UEFA Europa League this season, will play host to Azerbaijani side FK Qabala on Thursday evening, and Die Schwarzgelben are MASSIVE favourites–at 1/14–to take all three points.
More importantly, Tuchel will use Thursday’s Europa League clash against Qabala to prepare for next weekend’s Ruhr Derby against FC Schalke 04.
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