Bundesliga leaders and DFB Cup holders Borussia Dortmund delivered a commanding and serious display in Magdeburg – despite the fervent atmosphere in the stands – to book their place in the last 16.

Boris Rupert reporting from Magdeburg

1. FC Magdeburg are a club with promotion aspirations who, before this weekend, had won seven successive home games in all competitions. Yet they "capitulated" – or so they said in the catacombs – in a 3-0 home defeat by Unterhaching on Saturday having "already turned their thoughts to their biggest match in a decade," so you knew BVB weren't going to be in for an easy ride.

The stadium was on fire. Literally. The legend of 1974, when 1. FC Magdeburg became the first and only club from former East Germany to win a European trophy, was extolled and invoked both before and during their meeting with one of the true giants of German football. Although the approximately 2,000 travelling BVB fans provided uninterrupted support for the full 90 minutes, they were largely drowned out by the home faithful.

"It got easier after the opener"

In the end, though, the away contingent went home celebrating a highly deserved 5-0 away victory over the second-placed team in the third tier. "We didn't invite them on to us for one minute and had possession from the start," said midfielder Gonzalo Castro, adding: "It got easier once we had the opener. It was a dominant display."

Dortmund saw more of the ball (74 percent) and kept their cool after missing an early double chance, with Philipp hitting the upright and the goalkeeper brilliantly denying Isak on the rebound. The next opportunity did not present iself until the 22nd minute, when Yarmolenko again tested Magedeburg's shot-stopper, but it was clear the hosts would never be able to keep up their hard-running approach for 60 or even 90 minutes.

"I was in the right place"

Two goals either side of the interval eventually dampened the spirits of the plucky third-division outfit, with Castro opening the scoring in the 42nd minute seconds after coming on to replace the injured Dahoud. "I was in the right place. Andrey and Alex did really well in the build-up. It wasn't difficult to fire the ball over the line," explained the goalscorer, who thanked his two team-mates for their role in setting him up.

Barely two minutes had passed after the restart when 18-year-old Swede Alexander Isak finished off a move involving Shinji Kagawa, Andrey Yarmolenko and Maximilian Philipp, which he himself had started, to double the advantage. "I'm satisfied with the result. Winning 5-0 in Magdeburg is a good result," said Peter Bosz, adding: "Going 1-0 up before half-time and 2-0 up directly after the break helped us a lot. After that we played some good football." By the end of the night, BVB had ten chances; 1. FCM had none.

An evening of comebacks

Another positive was that the coach managed to hand two other players some valuable playing time following their return from lengthy spells on the treatment table. "I'm very happy to have finally made my comeback," said Portugal international Guerreiro, who broke his ankle at the Confederations Cup in June.

Schürrle, Guerreiro and Marcel Schmelzer are now all back. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Christian Pulisic and Julian Weigl were only suffering from minor issues. So once Ömer Toprak's thigh strain has healed, Lukasz Piszczek, Marco Reus, Sebastian Rode and Erik Durm will be the only injury absentees. It's still not an ideal scenario, but it's much better than being without six defenders as the Black & Yellows were in Frankfurt.

"A good result"

The players are back, as is their self-confidence. "It was important to get a good result to boost our confidence for the difficult matches coming up," noted Gonzalo Castro.

The fourth and final of their consecutive away games comes on Saturday, when Borussia Dortmund face Hannover 96.

Facts: 17 away wins in a row
Interview: Raphael Guerreiro
Match report: 5-0 in Magdeburg