League with a 4-1 victory over Galatasaray on Tuesday.
Saturday's 2-1 loss at Bayern Munich was a fifth straight
Bundesliga defeat for Jurgen Klopp's side.
However, Dortmund put their domestic problems behind them
by making it four wins from four in Group D following
victories over Arsenal, Anderlecht and a 4-0 romp in Istanbul
two weeks ago.
This was a tighter affair in the opening stages as a strong
contingent of Galatasaray fans helped create a great atmospher
at Signal Iduna Park.
But Dortmund held their nerve as Reus beat the offside trap to
net in the 39th minute and Sokratis Papastathopoulos added a
second soon after half-time.
Hakan Balta briefly got the visitors back in it, only for substitute
Ciro Immobile to put the hosts in control again and a Semih
Kaya own goal compounded Galatasaray's misery.
Galatasaray may also face a Uefa inquest after play twice had to
be halted briefly due to flares and firecrackers being thrown
onto the pitch by the away supporters.
Dortmund were without Mats Hummels, Nuri Sahin, Marian Sar
and Ji Dong-Won through injury, while Oliver Kirch and Jakub
Blaszczykowski were also absent due to a lack of match fitness.
Galatasaray had Aydin Yilmaz sidelined with a foot problem, but
Felipe Melo had sufficiently recovered from a thigh strain to
make the starting line-up and Umut Bulut was preferred to
Burak Yilmaz up front.
The visitors had an early penalty appeal turned down when
Bulut went to ground too easily after making contact with Erik
Durm and Wesley Sneijder's overhead kick was comfortably
saved by Roman Weidenfeller.
Dortmund then went close to breaking the deadlock after 25
minutes when Papastathopoulos headed against the crossbar
from a Reus corner, while Shinji Kagawa was just wide when
curling one in with the outside of his right foot.
The hosts went ahead six minutes before the break, though,
when Lukasz Piszczek's fine through-ball picked out a great run
from Reus in behind the Galatasaray backline and the
playmaker coolly slotted past Fernando Muslera.
Sneijder almost caught Weidenfeller napping with a snapshot at
the start of the second period, but Dortmund were in control
when Galatasaray failed to clear a cross and Sebastian Kehl
headed down for Sokratis to hook the ball home.
The Turkish side pulled one back after 69 minutes when Balta
headed in a Sneijder corner, but Dortmund then broke away
through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and his cross was clinicall
chested down and forced past the outrushing goalkeeper by
Immobile.
Aubameyang almost added another for Dortmund on the
counter-attack, but the fourth did come when an Immobile
cross deflected in off Kaya for an own goal.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
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