Borussia Dortmund have returned to league action with an extremely convincing 6-0 (1-0) victory over SV Darmstadt 98. Thomas Tuchel's men followed up their emphatic win in Warsaw three days ago with another outstanding performance, taking their goals tally to 12 in the space of four days as they moved up to fourth place.

The 81,360 fans in a sold-out SIGNAL IDUNA PARK saw an extremely dominant performance from BVB, who opened the scoring early through Castro (7) before spurning a string of chances to double their lead. Darmstadt, on the other hand, couldn't get close to the hosts' goal in the first half and then saw the game slip beyond their reach when Ramos (48) and Pulisic (54) scored shortly after the restart. Castro (78), Rode (84) and Mor (88) all found the net late on to make it 6-0.

Dennis-Julian Gottschlich reports

The scenario:
BVB might have suffered a last-minute defeat away to Rasenballsport Leipzig in the Bundesliga last weekend, but they bounced back with a clear and highly-deserved 6-0 win over Legia Warsaw in Poland when the UEFA Champions League group stages kicked off in midweek. Darmstadt travelled to Westphalia on the back of a 1-0 win over arch rivals Frankfurt. Borussia were facing the Lilies for the eighth time in a competitive match and boasted the considerably better head-to-head record, having won four, drawn two and lost just one. However, last season a then newly-promoted Darmstadt outfit took home an unexpected point from Dortmund after snatching a 2-2 draw through Sulu's late goal (90).

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Ramos returned to the team and wrought havoc in attack.

Personnel matters:
Reus (lack of match fitness), Bender (ankle), Durm (knee operation) and Schürrle (media collateral ligament) were all missing for BVB, while Piszczek (muscular problems) was also unavailable following his European exertions in midweek. Thomas Tuchel therefore rotated in four positions, with Aubameyang, Götze, Bartra (all bench) and Pisczcek making way for Ramos, Castro, Ginter und Passlack. Darmstadt were without Obinna (suspension) and Platte (hip operation).

Tactics:
The visitors lined up in a 5-4-1 formation, adopting an extremely passive approach and attempting to thwart BVB's quick attacking play with two compact and extremely defensive lines. It only had a limited effect, though. The hosts adopted a highly versatile 4-1-4-1 system. Guerreiro and Dembélé in particular presented Darmstadt with problems on the left flank, while Castro pulled the strings in the centre. BVB's lone striker was Ramos, who demonstrated great mobility as he repeatedly dropped deep to gain possession.

The match & analysis:
BVB looked extremely focused from the outset, dominating the match and looking much more versatile, quicker and stronger in their combination play than Darmstadt 98. They had almost 75% possession and won over 55 percent of tackles in the first half. The Black and Yellows' superiority could not only be seen from the statistics and from the fact that the only player in BVB's half for long periods of the match was Bürki, who did not have a single shot on goal to deal with in the first 45 minutes; it was evident from the chances created and goals scored too.

The match was only seven minutes old when Castro put the hosts ahead, calmly slotting the ball home from six metres. The goal was preceded by good build-up play from Guerreiro and Ramos, who spotted and found Dembélé on the left. The young Frenchman then had all the time in the world, delivering an inch-perfect cross to Castro on the edge of the six-yard box.

First Ramos, then Pulisic

Wave after wave of Black and Yellow attack then rolled towards the goal of the Lilies, who looked increasingly overexerted each time the hosts upped the tempo. The result was a number of gilt-edged chances, with only Esser in the visitors' goal able to fend off BVB's attacks. He made two excellent saves from Ramos (10, 28), plucked the ball out of the air at the last second as the Colombian threatened (12) and did well to deal with a Guerreiro effort from 18 metres out. In addition, Ramos also missed when he fired the ball narrowly wide (14). It could have been 2-0, 3-0 or even 4-0, but the hosts only went in 1-0 up at the break after having squandered the chances to increase their lead.

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Goalscorer Castro (left) and captain Schmelzer celebrate BVB's opener.

That changed immediately after the restart as the Black and Yellows picked up from exactly where they had left off. Barely three minutes had passed when Guerreiro hit a low effort from distance. Though Esser made the save, he parried the ball into the path of Ramos, who raced in and slotted home from close range to score a long overdue and highly-deserved second for BVB (48). Minutes later Dembélé played a brilliant pass into the penalty area to Schmelzer, whose ball into the middle was unluckily steered by a Darmstadt player into the path of Pulisic, who was racing in from the other side of the box. The young American did not need to be asked twice and comfortably fired home from 14 metres (54).

Goals galore at the end

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Sokratis dominated in the air.

Was it all over? Well, it certainly was a few minutes later when Niemeyer was deservedly given his marching orders after picking up a second yellow card for a studs-up tackle on Dembelé. Then the men from Hesse surrendered to their fate – and BVB turned up the heat even more. Esser first made top-notch saves from substitute Mor (69), then from Pulisic and Kagawa (77).

Shortly afterwards Castro rounded off a wonderful individual performance, first making it 4-0 with a back-heel from five metres following an assist from Pulisic (78) and then finding Rode, who added a fifth with another back-heeled effort from close range (84). The cherry on the cake came in the 88th minute, when Mor made it 6-0 with his first Bundesliga goal following another assist from Pulisic.

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Prospects:
BVB face a double-header in the Bundesliga this week, first travelling to VfL Wolfsburg on Tuesday (20:00 CET) before welcoming SC Freiburg to SIGNAL IDUNA PARK on Friday evening (23/09, kick-off 20:30 CET).

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