Coach Jurgen Klopp said Borussia Dortmund had produced a near-perfect performance to leave them on the verge of the Champions League's quarter-finals after routing Zenit St Petersburg away
Borussia Dortmund's Lukasz Piszczek (right) and Robert Lewandowski celebrate a goal in Russia yesterday. Pic/AFP
Saint Petersburg: Coach Jurgen Klopp said Borussia Dortmund had produced a near-perfect performance to leave them on the verge of the Champions League's quarter-finals after routing Zenit St Petersburg away.
Borussia Dortmund's Lukasz Piszczek (right) and Robert Lewandowski celebrate a goal in Russia yesterday. Pic/AFP
Poland striker Robert Lewandowski scored twice as Dortmund romped to a 4-2 win at Zenit's Petrovsky Stadium in the Last 16, first-leg clash.
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Klopp was delighted as Borussia bounced back from Saturday's shock 0-3 defeat at relegation-threatened Hamburg in the Bundesliga to dominate Zenit.
Last season's finalists raced into a 2-0 lead with goals by Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marco Reus inside the first five minutes to leave the Russians reeling. The hosts pulled two goals back after the break as central midfielder Oleg Shatov scored, then Brazil's Hulk converted a penalty.
But on both occasions Dortmund responded almost immediately as Lewandowski scored twice to give the German side a huge advantage ahead of the second leg next month. "That was close to an optimal performance," said Klopp.
"In terms of pressing and counter pressing, that was a copybook performance from us against a dangerous team. We were incredibly active and aggressive. It's not easy to do that and the team put in a fantastic performance.
"We played against a very talented side, who showed the whole time that they wanted to play football."
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