Borussia Dortmund's U23s deservedly won their game in hand against Sportfreunde Siegen 4-0 (3-0) as they returned to winning ways after a run of three straight defeats in the Regional League. 21-year-old attacker Michael Eberwein was the standout performer for Daniel Farke's charges on Matchday 26, netting a brace in the opening stages to put the visitors on course for a comfortable victory.

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Michael Eberwein grabbed a brace in Siegen.

"Very well done to the lads, because it wasn't such an easy thing to do in our situation to win here by such a clear margin," said Farke, who was delighted with both the result and the strong team performance. "We approached the match with high intensity from the start, put ourselves on course for victory early on and ultimately saw out what was a very comfortable win," he added.

Farke made three changes to the starting XI that lost in Düsseldorf last time out. While the return of Michael Eberwein in place of Atakan Karazor (who was suffering from a knock and given a breather) and the selection of David Sauerland in place of Jonas Arweiler (who was rested due to overexertion in recent weeks as part of the coach's rotation policy) were hardly unexpected, Farke handed a surprise start to reserve shot-stopper Dominik Reimann, who replaced Hendrik Bonmann between the sticks for this one.

"Dominik is finally fit after a long spell on the sidelines with injury and the club now wants to see him," explained BVB II executive Ingo Preuß. The 19-year-old was selected because of the chance of a call-up for the U20 World Cup in South Korea. "But he will probably only be able to go if he has got the necessary game time under his belt, and we want to give him this in the next few weeks. Because in Dominik, we have a highly talented Germany youth international, whom we don't want to deny this one-off opportunity," Preuß continued. However, Reimann had little to do between the sticks in his second Regional League match.

Michael Eberwein quickly put the Black and Yellows on the path to victory in Siegen with a brace in the opening stages, first netting from an excellent Burak Camoglu cross in the 12th minute, then converting a spot-kick after being fouled by Sabah seven minutes later.

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Dominik Reimann

The match progressed as expected in the wake of those early goals, with BVB having more possession and emerging as the better team. Though Siegen only produced two half-chances, further gilt-edged opportunities were a rarity for Dortmund too given the difficult pitch conditions at the Leimbachstadion. However, victory was sealed before the break when Patrick Mainka headed home a Massih Wassey free-kick (41).

Provider Wassey then turned goalscorer on the hour mark, slotting home the fourth following a pass from Marco Hober. Borussia could have increased the margin of victory in the final half an hour, but this was not a bone of contention for Daniel Farke, who said: "I was particularly pleased with the clean sheet, having conceded three times in each of the last two games."

BVB II: Reimann - Camoglu, Zimmermann, Mainka, Schumacher (Karazor, 78) - Fritz - Wassey, Eberwein, Hober (Bockhorn, 62), Sauerland - Al Ghaddioui (Solga, 71)
Goals: 0-1 Eberwein (12), 0-2 Eberwein (19), 0-3 Mainka (41), 0-4 Wassey (60)
Udo Stark