Borussia Dortmund beat FC Koln 2-1 in the Bundesliga on Saturday as Serhou Guirassy and Maximilian Beier were on target.
With a 16th top-flight win in the bag, the BVB consolidated their position on the league table in second place with 55 points in the bag.
Following a challenging set of fixtures in February during which their Champions League and Bundesliga title hopes both came to an end, Dortmund cut themselves some slack here with a narrow win.
Guirassy put them 1-0 up after just 16 minutes as Jamhai Simpson-Pusey's red card in the added minutes of the opening stanza added further wind to their sails.
The visitors then capitalized on their numerical advantage to bag a second through Beier, before Jakub Kaminski scored a consolation goal for the Billy Goats in the dying embers.
With Bayern Munich 11 points clear, Dortmund's sole objective hereon will be to qualify for the Champions League next season with a top-four finish.
Here are some interesting facts from the win
Koln, Dortmund's favorite opposition
The Black and Yellows have now won their last five meetings with FC Koln in the Bundesliga, their best run against any side from the division right now.
Guirassy, the serial opener
With his opening strike on Saturday, Guirassy has now struck the first goal for Dortmund on six occasions in the Bundesliga this season - more than any player in the competition.
He also bagged the first goal in their opening three league fixtures against St. Pauli, Union Berlin and Heidenheim, before repeating the trick against Augsburg and Mainz too.
Beier, the lucky scorer
Maximilian Beier is enjoying a productive spell in front of goal this season, netting eight times in the Bundesliga - as much as he managed in the entirety of the 2024-25 season with nine games still left in the ongoing campaign.
More importantly, it's worth noting that Dortmund have never lost a game in which Beier has scored, winning 12 times and drawing thrice in all competitions.
Schlotterbeck, the talismanic leader
While Emre Can is the official captain of Borussia Dortmund, his repeated injury-enforced absences mean others have got the chance to don the armband too, particularly Nico Schlotterbeck, who led his team out against Koln on Saturday too.
Under his captaincy, Dortmund have now won four consecutive games having previously beating Werder Bremen (3-0), Heidenheim (3-2) and Wolfsburg (2-1) before the Koln win last weekend.