Marco Reus put in a fine display in Borussia Dortmund’s 4-1 victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach on matchday 13 of the Bundesliga. The Germany international, making his first start in the league this year, was constantly involved and supplied three assists to set BVB on the path to victory. Reus had two attempts of his own, but was blocked each time. Five minutes after the restart he scored with a beautiful back-heel-flick, but the goal was ruled offside by referee Marco Fritz.
“It’s fantastic how Marco returned,” said coach Thomas Tuchel after the game. For Reus, this was the first time in 207 Bundesliga appearances that he provided three assists in one game and rightfully he was greeted by standing ovations from the sold out Signal Iduna Park, when he was brought off after 78 minutes.
In this interview with DFB.de, the 27-year-old forward talks about his improving form, their clear victory against his former club, Dortmund’s flourishing attacking play – the best in the league with 31 goals scored – and their upcoming Champions League clash with Real Madrid on Wednesday.
Question: Marco Reus, how much fun did you have during the 4-1 victory over Gladbach? From the outside it looked as if Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ousmane Dembélé and yourself had quite a good time out there.
Marco Reus: From the outside it always looks like fun (laughs). But to be honest, if Gladbach manage to hold their 1-0 lead for longer, it would’ve turned out to be a different match. But we got back into the game really well, right after conceding the opener. Overall it was important to have a compact shape and bring continuity to the pitch for the full 90 minutes.
Question: This was your first start in the Bundesliga this season. How did the game play-out in your opinion?
Reus: Obviously it wasn’t good to concede an early goal but fortunately we got right back in the game and scored twice to take a 2-1 lead. Like I said, It was important for us to have a compact shape, defend with a high line and limit the available space for the opponent. That allowed us to prevent Gladbach from unleashing their attacking game. We took control of the game midway through the first half and in the second half we added two more goals.
Marco Reus put in a fine display in Borussia Dortmund’s 4-1 victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach on matchday 13 of the Bundesliga. The Germany international, making his first start in the league this year, was constantly involved and supplied three assists to set BVB on the path to victory. Reus had two attempts of his own, but was blocked each time. Five minutes after the restart he scored with a beautiful back-heel-flick, but the goal was ruled offside by referee Marco Fritz.
“It’s fantastic how Marco returned,” said coach Thomas Tuchel after the game. For Reus, this was the first time in 207 Bundesliga appearances that he provided three assists in one game and rightfully he was greeted by standing ovations from the sold out Signal Iduna Park, when he was brought off after 78 minutes.
In this interview with DFB.de, the 27-year-old forward talks about his improving form, their clear victory against his former club, Dortmund’s flourishing attacking play – the best in the league with 31 goals scored – and their upcoming Champions League clash with Real Madrid on Wednesday.
Question: Marco Reus, how much fun did you have during the 4-1 victory over Gladbach? From the outside it looked as if Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ousmane Dembélé and yourself had quite a good time out there.
Marco Reus: From the outside it always looks like fun (laughs). But to be honest, if Gladbach manage to hold their 1-0 lead for longer, it would’ve turned out to be a different match. But we got back into the game really well, right after conceding the opener. Overall it was important to have a compact shape and bring continuity to the pitch for the full 90 minutes.
Question: This was your first start in the Bundesliga this season. How did the game play-out in your opinion?
Reus: Obviously it wasn’t good to concede an early goal but fortunately we got right back in the game and scored twice to take a 2-1 lead. Like I said, It was important for us to have a compact shape, defend with a high line and limit the available space for the opponent. That allowed us to prevent Gladbach from unleashing their attacking game. We took control of the game midway through the first half and in the second half we added two more goals.
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Question: Dortmund looked more fluid against Gladbach than in recent games. What changed?
Reus: We played better in the second half, but in the first we did have our problems. Gladbach are a good side and with players like Raffael, Stindl, Hazard and Dahoud they can really do damage in attack. They combine well with the ball and it’s difficult to secure possession against them. We defended on a high line, which was the plan in order to limit the space they could play into and then play on the counter attack ourselves.
Question: How well do you get on with your attacking team mates? It looks quite good from the outside.
Reus: Yes, when we score a goal and find our rhythm it works quite well. But we just have to bring consistency to our game, especially in terms of our compact defensive shape. We are working on that right now. It takes time, but we have the necessary patience.
Question: On Wednesday you will face Real Madrid in the Champions League. Will a similar game plan lead to success in Spain as well?
Reus: We will see. We still have to prepare ourselves for Madrid. It will definitely be a game played on a high level. We will find out what our tactical approach will look like.
