BORUSSIA DORTMUND STARTED life under Peter Stoeger with a 2-0 win at Mainz on Tuesday as they broke an eight-game winless run in the Bundesliga.
You may recognise the name from his hat-trick for Austria against Ireland in 1995.
In his maiden match at the helm since replacing the sacked Peter Bosz, Stoeger made an excellent start as second-half goals from Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Shinji Kagawa second half secured a first victory over top-flight opposition since September.
The Austrian, himself only dismissed by bottom-placed Cologne this month, was immediately appointed by BVB to lead a turnaround and received a glimpse of the work ahead during a laboured first half.
But where they have folded under pressure time and again in recent months, Dortmund persevered through a difficult opening and reaped the rewards.
Sokratis provided the initial relief, bundling home a rebound through a throng of bodies for his second and most important league goal of the campaign.
And Shinji Kagawa, having spurned one clear opportunity, buried the second late in proceedings to sweep Dortmund into a much more palatable fourth after 16 games.
Despite making three changes and shifting from a three-man defence to a back four, Stoeger’s tenure began much the way his predecessor’s ended as the away side came under early pressure.
Suat Serdar crashed a swerving effort off the top of the crossbar in the sixth minute and followed that by firing wastefully high with time and space inside the area.
Abdou Diallo next nodded over from a good position as Mainz settled quickest during the opening exchanges, albeit without making their opportunities count.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, having earlier turned a difficult shot around the upright, should have done better with his first real sight of goal five minutes from the interval, only to hastily poke wide of the same right-hand post after Julian Weigl dropped a pass over the hosts’ defence.
Raphael Guerreiro did draw Robin Zentner into the first save for either goalkeeper late in the half, but that was the only shot on target of an otherwise muted first 45 minutes.
After Christian Pulisic failed to hit the target soon after the restart, it was left to a defender to provide the crucial composure in front of goal.
Omer Toprak’s close-range header from Kagawa’s free-kick came back off the near post and fell for Sokratis to drive in the opener.
The visitors’ goal was reward for their increasing command of possession, although Roman Burki still needed to be alert to hold an Alexander Hack header.
Diallo then sliced the wrong side of the near post when presented with another chance as the away side’s response to adversity began to be tested.
Kagawa, creator of the first, should have buried the match from Andriy Yarmolenko’s cut-back but his finish was straight at Zenter.
However, he made no mistake from a second chance to safeguard a morale-boosting three points, the Japan international tucking home at point-blank range after Aubameyang unselfishly looked for his team-mate following a counter-attack.
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Great save by Kelleher near the end. Comfortable afternoon for him
Top player.
Super performance and result albeit against a woeful Watford. Unlikely to be a worse performance by any PL team this season. Salah is unbelievable and his goal was magical, give him the contract his performances and goals deserve. Great to see Firmino scoring. Though Kelleher had nothing to do he kept his concentration to make a very good save at the end. Gonna be a tight title race. Surprised Salah and Mane played the 90 minutes, Minamino could have done with game time especially against that Watford team.
Mo Salah is WOW!!! a pleasure to watch him…..Firmino not bad either : )
Time to sack Ranieri…….
@John S: dilly ding dilly dong
@Heckler davies: dilly ding, dilly gone
Class win and 3 more handy points. We will be hard to stop This season as we put last seasons blip behind us
Danny Rose will sleep tonight. Great performance against an albeit poor side!!
Give Mo all the money. Almost 0% chance of being able to replace him
Lewandowski and Salah are the best players in the world on current form.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a PL side as bad as that Watford side today….if they lost 10-0 it wouldn’t have been a surprise! Woeful…
@Ottomaaan: you forgot to mention that they were up against a solid side with a rampant front three, there, I fixed it for you…. :)
@Gordon Larney: no need to fix anything. That was the worst performance I’ve ever seen from a PL side, dreadful stuff and Liverpool could have put 10 past them.
@Ottomaaan: have to agree. I was at the game and never seen such a bad performance from a PL team.
Salah in great form. But how long canhe hold that form? He has 20-25 goals in him a season, but he’s up and down. If he held this form, he’d be close to 40 goals?
Bigger tests against Athletico and United on the way.
@Finn Faulkner: did you like your own comment…
@Finn Faulkner: how long can he do that. ? He has been doing it for the last 4 seasons. 104 goals in 166 games in the Premier league but you think he should score more. Okay so
@Finn Faulkner: you’re gonna need bigger bait on that hook ….
@WESHALLNOTBEMOVED: But by that metric 4 seasons at 40 goals would be 160 goals. He hasn t done that. But my point is that if he can keep that killer hat on his head for a prolonged period, and with our squad almost injury free, he could break records for us. I’m HOPING he keeps this lethal form indefinitely. He still can’t be put in the Messi/Ronaldo category until he starts being seriously clinical. I’d love to see him win the Balloon d’Or this year (or the next)
@len len: No, but seeing as you need likes, here, have mine. Have a lovely day.
@WESHALLNOTBEMOVED: you included his Chelsea stats there, it’s 102 in 153 for Liverpool
@Shane Roche: It’s still an amazing number of goals per season, but I think he can go even further, he needs to keep this current form. Biggest tests are against Athletico and then United.
That salah. Goal was pure roy of the rovers.. Pure art.. He must be a great dancer..
As good as Liverpool are, and they are really good. This in my opinion is all about Klopp.