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It was a perfect game all around: a beautiful choreo, Nuri Sahin's return, and a dominant 2-0 win against a good FC Porto side. The win puts Dortmund in a strong position to advance going into the second leg at the Dragao next Thursday. Here's a look at our how our players fared in a brilliant performance.
Burki 7: Our goalkeeper didn't have much to do in this one until after the 80th minute, making a good save on a chance that could've breathed some life into Porto.
Piszczek 8: A surprising goal from our right back opened the scoring, and he was influential down the right for the whole game. He dedicated his goal to his second child who was recently born. Our fullbacks have a knack of scoring against Iker Casillas, as Schmelzer scored against him back in 2012.
Sokratis 8: Kept Vincent Aboubakar in his pocket all night. Sokratis got his spot back after Neven Subotic's good performance over the weekend. Dortmund's back line and Sokratis himself have been in some good form recently.
Hummels 9: My man of the match. Hummels was an attacking and defensive presence in this game, big thanks to Nuri Sahin. He popped up quite often on the left, very effective with his passing and tackling. He was always there to start up Dortmund attacks, but put in multiple strong tackles to prevent Porto from seeing any action in front of our goal.
Photo by Dennis Grombkowski/Bongarts/Getty Images
Schmelzer 7: With Mats appearing so often on the left, Schmelzer played much further forward on the left wing than usual, and was very involved in the game. He seemed like he desperately wanted to score on Iker Casillas again, trying to shoot on a few occasions.
Weigl 7: After sitting out the last few games, Weigl returned to the line-up and performed very well. He looked unphased by the occasion and paired up well with Nuri Sahin. And then you remember he's only 20...
Sahin 8: After 355 days out, Nuri Sahin returned to the Dortmund line-up in great fashion. He bossed the game in the midfield for 55 minutes, just like we were used to seeing. His defensive maturity allowed Hummels to attack on the left, with less of a defensive worry.
Kagawa 5: It might be a little harsh, considering he was much better after the 70th minute, but Kagawa missed two great chances in this game and lost the ball often in the first half. He hasn't been in good form recently, and Tuchel seemed frustrated with him at times on Thursday. He did redeem himself by creating Dortmund's second goal.
Mkhitaryan 9: This guy is Dortmund's best player. He nearly scored a spectacular header, which was only saved by the post. With two assists on the night, Mkhitaryan is consisting creating and scoring goals this season, leading all of Europe with 18 assists in all competitions.
Reus 8: Marco put in another good performance, scoring a goal and avoiding serious injury on a scary tackle. Last year, he might've been out for two months after that challenge, but it says a lot that he was able to shake it off and proceed to score a goal afterwards. He got some help on the finish from Martins Indi, but Reus probably would have tucked it away anyways.
Aubameyang 6: Our goalscoring striker surprisingly didn't get many chances in a match we dominated. In the end it didn't matter, and his presence on the pitch always has a positive effect on the game for Dortmund. He and Reus switched positions often throughout the match, which has become a trend in recent games.
SUBS:
Leitner 7: He came on to replace Nuri around the 58th minute, so Moritz got some good minutes under his belt. He looked sharp, playing some really nice passes, and it wouldn't be surprising at all if he got the start next Thursday at the Dragao. In his limited performances this season, Leitner has given himself a chance to become a key player for Dortmund.
Matthias Ginter and Christian Pulisic both came on in the 87th minute, much too late to receive a meaningful rating.