Appearance of Weigl and Isak enhances Dortmund's dream start
Bundesliga beware! Borussia Dortmund are purring and with pass master Julian Weigl back from injury and slick striker Alexander Isak now up and running in Black and yellow, BVB version 2017/18 will take some stopping.
Cologne found out painfully on Sunday that they couldn’t halt Die Schwarzgelben, the Billy Goats left bleating in bewilderment following a 5-0 reverse at Signal Iduna Park on Matchday 4. Dortmund’s win was the biggest secured by any team in the Bundesliga so far this term and came courtesy of a Maximilian Philipp double – his first goals for the club – one from Sokratis and scoring supremo Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s third and fourth strikes of this campaign.
Watch: Aubameyang - "It was good to play in this game!"
“The margin of victory was deserved - every opponent struggles to cope with our offensive pressing,” an understandably confident Philipp said after BVB made it three wins from four in Germany’s top division. “We performed well in the second half but I was not quite satisfied with the first,” a demanding Peter Bosz added, the coach seeking improvements from the early Bundesliga leaders in the weeks to come.
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With midfield passing perfectionist Weigl back on board having fully recovered from an ankle injury, the North Rhine-Westphalia-based side appear well set for a tilt at the top-flight title they last won in 2012.
Coming on to make his first appearance for Dortmund’s senior side since last May – and his 61st in the Bundesliga – Weigl completed an incredible 33 passes in just 23 minutes, more than any of Cologne’s players managed in the entire game. The 22-year-old Germany international also had 38 touches, just one fewer than Aubameyang, who played 85 minutes of the Westfalenstadion encounter.
Indeed, so smooth was this exercise for the hosts, that Swedish striker Isak even made a five-minute cameo, the 17-year-old replacing Aubameyang with Dortmund already out of sight. Signed from AIK Solna last January, Isak enjoyed his first moments in front of the Yellow Wall and almost made it a debut to remember with a shot that narrowly missed the target before the end.
With a midweek encounter against Hamburg to come, everything appears to be coming together for a BVB team who have been top of the standings after each Matchday this season, a first for the club after four games.
Watch: Maximilian Philipp on the joy of scoring!
Bosz’s side are also the only top-flight team not to have conceded, with their goals for and against column reading 10:0. Their unbeaten streak at home in the Bundesliga now standing at 40 games, Dortmund have laid down a demanding marker to the rest of their challengers in an already enthralling campaign.