Instead it was the Ruhr valley club, transformed this season under coach Thomas Tuchel after a disappointing 2014/15 campaign, that scored again with Japan worldwide Kagawa, in stellar form this season, flicking in to complete a quick passing move in the 58th. The tally includes three key home matches against last season’s league runners-up VfL Wolfsburg, a Champions League clash with Dinamo Zagreb, then Dortmund on 4 October, which is warming up to be a battle royal.
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Der BVB is now at the top of the Bundesliga table, side-by-side with their long term rivals, Bayern Munich, and they have already scored 18 goals and conceded only two in five league matches so far. With Marco Reus, Kagawa, Aubeymeyang there is plenty of attacking talent here and that has been evident from the start of the season as Borussia have been goal happy scoring fifteen goals in four games.
But Wolfsburg’s 2-0 home win over Hertha Berlin was somewhat fortunate on Saturday, and Bayern will present a far greater challenge on Tuesday.
Aubameyang also pointed to his close relationship with Tuchel when asked to explain his impressive early-season goal return. During the winter period, they languished at the bottom of the Bundesliga table on several occasions and only managed a seventh place finish at the end of the season. It is good that we have managed to achieve this winning streak. He gives me the confidence I need. We speak in English but it’s good for me to talk with him.
“We are looking forward to the game against Wolfsburg, especially now that we are in a groove”, said Bayern sports director Matthias Sammer, with his team having also won their Champions League opener at Olympiakos last week.
However, to their credit Dortmund managed to keep both Hummels and Reus in the team and have strengthened their squad through the loan signing of promising Manchester United youngster Adnan Januzaj as well as the purchase of experienced utility man Gonzalo Castro from Bayer Leverkusen. To make things worse, one of Bundesliga’s finest tacticians, Lucien Favre resigned from his role at Gladbach.
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Elsewhere, Augsburg picked up their first win of the season with a 2-0 victory at Hanover 96 thanks to goals by right-winger Alexander Esswein and Dutch defender Paul Verhaegh.
