3-0 goals, 21-2 shots on goal, 56 per cent possession, Roman Weidenfeller had absolutely nothing to do, he did not have to save one shot over the whole 90 minutes – looking at the statistics after the victory against Paderborn shows clearly how superior Borussia Dortmund was on Saturday afternoon. After the game a very satisfied Jürgen Klopp said: “we want to press everything out of this season that we can right up to the end.” The first step has now been taken.

Everyone was in suspense about what reaction the team would have after the background news of Klopp’s departure at the end of the season. A lot of his players had thanked the Head Coach for the time they had together and they announced that they wanted to give him a farewell that only he deserves. Not an easy task, as Marcel Schmelzer and Matthias Ginter confirmed after the game.

The challenge was met head-on

Ginter said: “of course that took us all aback a bit.” Ginter laid on the 2-0 and it was the first time he was involved in a goal in the SIGNAL IDUNA PARK. Schmelzer added: “of course it is difficult to go into a match like that.” Team captain Mats Hummels explained: “naturally it had an influence on us – but maybe more in the way that everyone now has this one hundred per cent conviction and the one hundred per cent target to make sure the Head Coach has a befitting farewell.”

His team showed exactly this reaction, they fully concentrated on the difficult job against severely relegation threatened SCP for 90 minutes, they shut out any outside distractions and met the challenge head-on. They controlled their opponent for the whole game, they were tight at the back and they hit the net three times in the second half – after they had missed a few chances in the first half. In addition a good goal by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was disallowed.

Mkhitaryans best performance of the season

The facts that Shinji Kagawa found the net at home for the first time since match day five, that Aubameyang has already matched his best goal tally from last year with his 13th goal of the season and that Paderborn’s goalkeeper Lukas Kruse prevented an even bigger BVB victory with five great saves: these are facts that make every BVB fan get very excited, but they were even topped by one great performance: Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

The header by the Armenian to make it 1-0 started it all off. Jürgen Klopp confirmed: “after the 1-0 the boys seemed free of any pressure and really played well.” In addition Mkhitaryan set up the 3-0 through Kagwa with a lovely cross, he was involved in lots of great combinations in attack and he set up the big chance for Kuba with a great back heel. He had the most shots on goal (4) and had the most sprints (34).

A lot of factors have to come together

Marcel Schmelzer said after the game: “I am really happy for Micki. Mkhitaryan said thank you and confirmed: “I think I had one of my best games so far this season.” He also reciprocated his colleague’s nice words: “the whole team did a great job.” The 26 year old reckoned that the team has to continue just like this, then they can even maybe qualify for the Europa League. If the team does win the last five Bundesliga games, then it is perfectly possible that they will reach the sixth place in the table, which means they qualify for international competition.

But to do this many factors have to come together. FC Augsburg (6th) and Schalke (5th) are six points in front of BVB in ninth place. Bremen (2 points ahead) and Hoffenheim (1) are also between them and 6th place. BVB still have head to head games against Werder and TSG on match days 31 and 34, so can go above them. But especially when it comes to Augsburg, BVB needs help from others - and they have to make sure they do their own homework. But still – Henrikh Mkhitaryan leads the way by saying: “everything is possible, you can never say never.” Dennis-Julian Gottschlich