Borussia Dortmund thrashed Borussia Mönchengladbach 6-1 as they retained their position as the league leaders. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored a treble, Maximilian Philipp scored a brace while Julian Weigl chipped in with a goal as Peter Bosz’s men keep their unbeaten league record intact.
Philipp opened the scoring in the 28th minute, scoring a beautiful volley past Sippel. He added his second ten minutes later, as Dahoud’s crucial interception started the move which ended with Toljan’s inch-perfect cross being fired home by Philipp. Lars Stindl had a great chance as he pounced upon Piszczek’s error but couldn’t fire past Burki. Aubameyang scored his first of the game as he tapped in a Philipp assist to help his side go into the break with an unsurmountable 3-0 lead.
Aubameyang completed his hat-trick swiftly after the restart, scoring his second in the 49th minute and his third in the 62nd minute when he beat three defenders and the keeper single-handedly to become BVB’s fourth-best goalscorer ever. Lars Stindl then got one back for his side as he pounced on a defensive mistake, beating Burki for the first time in six league games this season. However, Dortmund regained their composure and ended the match with a beautiful goal by Weigl, who marked his first ever Bundesliga goal with a sailing effort from outside the box to make the score 6-1.
Peter Bosz’s men next face Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Here are the major Talking Points from the match-
Record Man Aubameyang
The match saw Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang move to fourth on the list of BVB’s all-time top scorer list, moving past Friedhelm Konietzka. He now needs only two more goals to breeze past Lothar Emmerich, and we all know that two goals aren’t a big deal for the enigmatic striker. Expect him to move to the third place in under a week.
Our Attack is Back
In the first few games this season, Bosz’s side couldn’t dominate games as they lacked goals and it looked like they’d be missing injured players like Reus and Schurrle and Dembele, who left for Barcelona, very badly in the opening stages this season. But we can now easily say that the attack is well and truly back. BVB have now scored a whopping 14 goals in the last three league games. Somebody talking about a lack of goals? Not anymore.
Effective Squad Rotation
Peter Bosz made five changes to the side that defeated Hamburg, as he rotated the entire midfield. However, it looks to have been a success as he found out an effective trio which includes the combative Dahoud and Weigl becoming perfect partners for an attack-minded Gotze. This has certainly provided Bosz with an optimistic Plan B, and it’ll be interesting to see if he tries out the same trio against Real Madrid as well, or recalls players like Sahin and Castro for the crucial game. The rotation has also highlighted their solid squad depth, and the quality of players Bosz has at his disposal is certainly terrifying when you recall that Reus and Schurrle are still yet to return from injuries.
No Love for Ginter?
Matthias Ginter was regularly booed whenever he got on the ball, and it was a little surprising when the fans went overboard with their jeers. The former BVB defender even gifted his former side a goal as he was robbed off the ball by Dahoud who passed it to Toljan who made a cutback and played Philipp through who finished the swift counter-attack.