The Real Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Is Back – Thomas Tuchel

Head coach Thomas Tuchel was full of praise for striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who scored a hat trick to help Borussia Dortmund beat Benfica 4-0 in the second leg of their Champions League round tie.

After a 1-0 defeat in the first leg, the German club came out strong and Aubameyang made sure there was no repeat of his poor showing in the first game as he recorded a hat trick, while Christian Pulisic also got on the scoresheet.

Pulisic’s goal made him the youngest-ever goalscorer for Dortmund in the Champions League, surpassing Felix Passlack’s record.

Tuchel was ecstatic with his team’s display, especially Aubameyang’s return to form.

“If I say that I expected this result it would mean that we have a lack of respect for Benfica. You cannot expect that you will score four goals against a team like them,” Tuchel said after the game.

“We had the self-confidence to turn the tie around and the team demonstrated that, especially in the second half.

“We saw the real Aubameyang [as opposed to the first leg].

“Benfica are a great, proud club and we have huge respect for them but we played two great games and I think we deserved to go through. If you are into the last eight you want to go to the last four and that’s what we will try hard to do.”

Benfica coach Rui Vitoria was left to rue his side’s failure to focus at the start of the game, but reckoned his team created enough opportunities to have scored a couple of goals.

“We did not start well into the game, conceding so early,” Vitoria said.

“But we did well after that and played nicely, until we allowed them to score two within a few minutes.

“Everyone could see that the game went well for us and that we could have gone through, we did have our chances after the break and didn’t use them. Then we were hardly able to react.”