Borussia Dortmund eased past Villarreal in a barnstorming 4-0 victory in the Champions League on Tuesday. A revitalized Serhou Guirassy was at the brace while Karim Adeyemi and Daniel Svensson also bagged apiece as the visitors were down to 10-men following Juan Foyth's sending off in the 52nd minute.
Coming into the fixture on the back of three winless games in all competitions, Niko Kovac's side turned on the heat against the Yellow Submarine, who are third in the Spanish LaLiga and only three points behind leaders Real Madrid.
It was a game of two contrasting halves with Dortmund looking relatively drab in the opening stanza and mustering only two shots. But they returned from the break with renewed vigor to take Villarreal to the cleaners.
The win takes Dortmund up to fourth in the Champions League table with 10 points from five games. Here are the key talking points from the clash:
3 lessons learned from Dortmund's win over Villarreal
3) Two penalty misses in the second half
Borussia Dortmund were beneficiaries of two penalties in the match, both coming in the second half and both missed. Serhou Guirassy stood to take the first one and sent Villarreal goalkeeper Junior the wrong way but he stretched his legs out to deny him, although the ball came right at the striker and this time, he made no mistake in dispatching it.
In the 82nd minute, Dortmund won another penalty. Fabio Silva went for it this time and smashed his effort against the bar. The home fans couldn't believe what they were seeing. This was also the first time since 1997 that the side missed two penalties in the same Champions League game.
2) Guirassy back among the goals
After three more goalless outings, Serhou Guirassy returned to the scoresheet with a brace last night. He put Dortmund in front with a header towards the end of the first half and netted another one after seeing his penalty come off Villarreal's goalkeeper.
The 29-year-old demonstrated glimpses of his former, fearsome self that used to tear apart defenses with his ruthless attacking instincts. Kovac will be hoping this brace would reinvigorate the beast inside Guirassy and prompt a new scoring run.
1) Dortmund hit 4 once again
Champions League appears to bring the best out of Borussia Dortmund's attacking game. Barring the 4-1 loss to Manchester City, the BVB have netted four times against all the other opponents in the compeititon this season: Juventus, Athletic Bilbao, Copenhagen and now Villarreal.
With 17 goals, Dortmund are the most prolific goalscoring side in the Champions League, even more than Bayern Munich and PSG, both of whom have bagged 14 and have a game in hand too at the time of writing.
Regardless, nothing takes away the frightening displays in attack by Dortmund. Other teams could legit fear the idea of facing them in Europe this season.