Borussia Dortmund have emerged victorious from the last friendly match in the winter break, securing a 3-1 (1-0) victory over Sparta Prague in Essen four days before the Bundesliga campaign restarts against Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday. The goals came from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who scored twice, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

Boris Rupert reporting from Essen

The Europa League participants from Czech Republic were forced back onto the defensive for the vast majority of the opening 45 minutes, with Bürki only forced to make saves twice. At the other end, the Black and Yellows created eight good chances in the first period, though only one of them was converted. After receiving the ball from Mkhitaryan, Gündogan beat two opponents in the box before squaring the ball across to Aubameyang, who was left with the simplest of tap-ins (41').

The Gabon international had already hit the bar (32'), headed narrowly over (30') and been denied by 'keeper Bicik after receiving a pass from Gündogan (6'). Brabec also cleared the ball away in the box as Reus was readying to shoot after build-up play from Weigl and Mkhitaryan (15'), and Castro had a shot scraped off the line by Costa (39').

Sparta Prague caused quite a surprise by equalising shortly after the interval when Lafata was allowed space in the box and shot low into the corner (49'). Soon afterwards, BVB narrowly missed through right-back Piszczek, who was adopting a more offensive approach to Park (56'). Thomas Tuchel, without the ill Kagawa and Ramos in addition to Sahin, Bender and Schmelzer, brought on five new faces with an hour on the clock. One of those, Ginter, played a strong pass towards Aubameyang, who curled the ball into the far corner to make it 2-1 (65'). Three minutes later Mkhitaryan fed Leitner, who swivelled on a sixpence with his back to goal before shooting. Though his effort came back off the post, Mkhitaryan followed it up to make it 3-1.

A few of the youngsters were also given a run-out towards the end. One of them, Jacob Bruun Larsen, came close to rounding off victory with a fourth late on (87').

BVB: Bürki – Piszczek (Durm, 61'), Sokratis (Subotic, 61'), Hummels, Park (Passlack, 76') – Gündogan (Ginter, 61'), Weigl (Stenzel, 76'), Castro (Leitner, 61') – Mkhitaryan (Bruun Larsen, 76'), Aubameyang (Serra, 76'), Reus (Pulisic, 61')
Goals: 1-0 Aubameyang (41'), 1-1 Lafata (49'), 2-1 Aubameyang (65'), 3-1 Mkhitaryan (68')
Attendance: 5,000