Borussia Dortmund have taken one step closer to winning their UEFA Champions League group after following up their 6-0 victory over Legia Warsaw in the away match by winning 8-4 at home and inflicting another heavy defeat on the Polish side.

Moreover, the seven goals scored in the first 45 minutes saw tonight's match equal the Champions League record for the highest-scoring half, which was first set on 5 October 2003 when AS Monaco emerged 8-3 (5-2) victors over Deportivo La Coruna. Prijovic broke the deadlock for the visitors (10) before Kagawa (17, 18) and Sahin (20) hit back to put BVB 3-1 ahead. Prijovic then struck again (24), before goals from Dembelé (29) and Reus (32) made it 5-2 to the hosts. In the second half the returning midfielder scored his side's sixth (52) and eighth (90+2) goals either side of Pulisic's header (81), while Kucharczyk (57) and Nikolic (83) were on target for the visitors.

The scenario
Unlike Real Madrid, who travelled to Sporting Lisbon in Group F's other match, BVB had already qualified for the last 16 of Europe's elite club competition before Matchday 5. Winning the group was therefore "all" the Black and Yellows, who were clear favourites in this one following their 6-0 success in Warsaw, had to play for.

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Nuri Sahin scored his first European goal for six years. He was last on target for BVB when they played PSG in October 2010.

Personnel matters
In view of their 1-0 victory over Bayern Munich three days ago, Borussia Dortmund made nine changes to the team that hosted Legia Warsaw in the UEFA Champions League tonight. Chief among them was Marco Reus, who returned as captain after 185 days out injured. Only Sokratis and Ginter kept their place in the starting XI named by head coach Thomas Tuchel, who was shorn of the injured Bürki (broken hand), Guerreiro (muscular problems), Schmelzer (cold), Bender (bone marrow oedema) and Subotic (fitness training).

Tactics
Both teams took to the field in a 4-2-3-1 formation. For BVB, Castro sometimes dropped very deep to pick up the ball and then drove forward to expand the attacking midfield trio of Dembelé, Kagawa and Pulisic into an offensive quartet. Reus played as the lone frontman. Legia resorted to a 4-4-2 when the hosts had the ball.

The match & analysis
Thomas Tuchel had made 09 changes to his starting XI, so perhaps it was no surprise that the hosts looked a little out of sync – particularly in defence. The match in Dortmund developed into an extremely open encounter; arguably too open, as every single one of the shots the two teams had on goal up until the 24th minute found the back of the net. Crazy stuff.

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With BVB 1-0 down, Shinji Kagawa scored twice in 78 seconds to turn the game on its head.

Fortunately for BVB, they were 3-2 up by that point. Prijovic had put the Poles 1-0 ahead in the tenth minute, before a three-goal salvo – Kagawa hit a brace (17, 18) and Sahin scored his first European goal since BVB played Paris St. Germain on 21 October 2010 – in the space of 198 seconds handed the hosts a 3-1 lead. There were only 78 seconds between Dortmund's first and second goals, and Borussia had never before scored three goals in such a short space of time in the Champions League. Soon afterwards, Prijovic hit back to make it 3-2 (24).

The most curious moment of the match up until that point was Sahin's goal following an error by Legia shot-stopper Cierzniak, who punched Reus' free-kick directly into the Turkey international's chest. Borussia's link-up play for their first two goals had simply been too quick for the Poles, Dembelé twice setting up Kagawa to score – with the equaliser even coming from a header.

Warsaw almost restored parity in the 29th minute when a Prijovic effort rebounded off the bar, a matter of seconds after which Dembelé made it 4-2. Shortly afterwards Reus surfaced unmarked in the middle following delicate link-up play from Sahin and Kagawa to add a fifth. By half-time BVB had had 65% possession, a pass completion rate of 91%, six shots (as had Legia) and were leading 5-2. Florian Kringe remarked on sky: "Both teams have been very careless in defence. At times the match has resembled a friendly."

Reus made it 6-2 after the interval (52), but Legia kept going and soon took advantage of weaknesses in the Dortmund rearguard to pull one back through Kucharczyk (57). At this point the two teams had scored nine goals from 15 shots, making for a highly successful conversion rate of 60%...

Aubameyang hits the woodwork

Thomas Tuchel soon reshuffled his pack, bringing on Durm for Bartra (62) and Aubameyang for Sahin (70). The Gabon international initiated the next chance immediately after coming on but referee Martin Strömbergsson (Sweden) bizarrely did not deem Czerwinski's foul on Passlack in the box to be worthy of a penalty. "Auba" then came close himself in the 79th minute, hitting the upright.

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Hat-trick hero Marco Reus wheels away in celebration.

The next goal eventually came from Passlack, who made it 7-3 by heading home after Cierzniak had palmed away Schürrle's drive (81), before Nikolic re-established the three-goal deficit soon after (83). Pulisic spurned the penultimate chance of the match when he was denied by Cierzniak from close range (90), then Reus made it 8-4 (90+2) to set a new record: BVB versus Legia Warsaw is now the highest-scoring game in UEFA Champions League history.

Prospects
Group F leaders BVB will travel away to the Bernabeu on 7 December, where they will compete with Real Madrid for top spot in the group. Los Blancos kept their hopes of securing pole position alive thanks to a 2-1 win away to Sporting Lisbon.

Teams & goals