The bravery of the home side made this an even encounter in the opening minutes. But BVB grew stronger and stronger once Richmond Tachie had scored the opening goal and found the net two times more through Steffen Tigges and Taylan Duman. Hosts Bonn did manage to pull a goal back with a quarter of an hour remaining, but it had no bearing whatsoever on the outcome of the game. Borussia Dortmund remain league leaders in the Regionalliga West, with 68 points already on the board.

The scenario: The Black & Yellows maintained their four-point lead over second place thanks to their 2-0 victory over SV Lippstadt. The hosts were battling relegation and went into this game second-bottom in the table.

Personnel matters: Florian Krebs, Tobi Raschl and Ansgar Knauff returned to the squad. Dominik Wanner joined Patrick Osterhage and Moritz Broschinski in the treatment room. Kolbeinn Finnsson has been away at the U21 European Championships since the start of this week.

The match & analysis: Both teams showed their attacking intent at the outset. BVB won the first corner within seconds, after Steffen Tigges had seen his effort blocked. The ball was then in the net at the other end after two minutes, but referee Robin Delfs disallowed the goal for a foul in the build-up and Dortmund were reprieved. Rather than sitting back and defending, Bonn kept trying to make their mark going forward.

Dortmund's next good chance came around the 14-minute mark. Again it was Tigges who teed up Richmond Tachie on the penalty spot, but his header sailed over the bar. It developed into an action-packed encounter, with Ansgar Knauff first denied by Jonas Hupe in a one-on-one in the 17th minute and Nils Teixeira missing from close range directly afterwards.

The home side won themselves lots of set-pieces, but BVB's vigilant defending meant they were to no avail. One of those dead balls gave rise to an opportunity for Dortmund to counter-attack around the half-hour mark. But Ansgar Knauff was again denied by the excellent Jonas Hupe in the Bonn goal.

Richmond Tachie went one better two minutes later, however. Having been teed up by Steffen Tigges, the attacker beat Hupe to make it 1-0. It was the ninth goal of the season for Tachie, and the 10th assist for Tigges. Both teams dropped their initial tempo in the period that followed. The Black & Yellows had more possession of the ball, while Bonn were no longer as energetic. The slender lead remained intact until the break.

BVB started the second period with a very good goalscoring opportunity. Steffen Tigges outmanoeuvred two opposing players and cut the ball back across the face of goal from the byline. Richmond Tachie was only a couple of centimetres away from doubling the advantage to 2-0. BVB were the team dictating the play, defending solidly and creating chance after chance to add to their lead.

The Black & Yellows got their reward by going 2-0 up in the 59th minute. Steffen Tigges played a one-two with Richmond Tachie to create space for himself, rounded Jonas Hupe and fired home his 17th goal of the season from seven metres out. The Bonn shot-stopper put the captain under pressure but could not stop the shot going in.

The Dortmund forward could have put the match to bed two minutes later, but he struck the upright from 16 metres out. Borussia continued to apply pressure and won a penalty for handball on the 63-minute mark, which Taylan Duman comfortably converted to make it 3-0. The game was now up. BVB coach Enrico Maaßen reacted immediately and made a treble substitution, opting to give Taylan Duman, Richmond Tachie and Alaa Bakir a breather.

The game dropped off a little in the aftermath, with neither team maintaining the high tempo from the first 60 minutes. But Bonn still managed to pull a goal back in the 74th minute, with substitute Alexander Sai the scorer. But the goal made little impact on the game. While Bonn did try to go forward and score again, BVB defended intellingently and did not give much away. In the end the scoreline remained 3-1 and the BVB kept themselves top of the Regionalliga West.

Match reactions:

Enrico Maaßen: "All in all, we wanted to win this game. We drew 1-1 in the reverse fixture and totally dominated. We wanted to do better today. The lads got the three points in the bag; that was very, very important. Nonetheless, there was again room for improvement in terms of chance conversion. It was a difficult game, also because the opposition invested a lot. We did a good job."

Outlook: BVB will be away to the Fortuna Düsseldorf U23s on Saturday (kick-off at 14:00 CET).

Team & goals

BVB U23s: Unbehaun, Maloney, Bakir (Ercan, 68), Duman (Bah-Traore, 68), Tachie (Makreckis, 68), Weigelt, Tigges, Pfanne, Dams, Knauff (Schmeling, 84), Raschl

Goals: 0-1 Tachie (29), 0-2 Tigges (59), 0-3 Duman (63), 1-3 Sai (74)