Win A Step In Right Direction For Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund took a step in the right direction by climbing off the bottom of the Bundesliga following Saturday’s 3-0 win at Freiburg, coach Jurgen Klopp believes.
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Gabon winger Pierre-Emerick Aubemayang scored two second-half goals to seal the win as Dortmund moved up to 16th, with Freiburg dropping to 17th, leaving both in the relegation places.
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German star Marco Reus gave Dortmund an early lead before Aubemayang sealed Borussia’s first win since the start of December.
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Dortmund now face mid-table Mainz and strugglers Stuttgart in the league before Italian league leaders Juventus away in the last 16 of the Champions League on February 24.
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“We must keep believing things will move forward after three or four months in which they didn’t. Today was a step in the right direction,” said a relieved Klopp.
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“The victory doesn’t mean we will win the next four games, but we have accepted out situation.”
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Dortmund raised their game considerably from their poor performance in Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat at home to ten-man Augsburg.
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“During the Augsburg game, the problems were mainly in our heads,” said Aubemayang.
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“Before the Freiburg game we were switched on and we wanted to be positive in everything we did.”
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The result lifted Dortmund’s spirits as much as their league status.
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“Against Augsburg, a few things went wrong, but that was mainly down to a lack of confidence in our own abilities,” said Klopp.
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“The team wanted it, ran a lot, but weren’t rewarded.
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“Things were clearly much better today, we were physically much better and also tactically.
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“We took an important first step and the team worked hard for the 90 minutes.
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Freiburg got off to the worst possible start when midfielder Mike Frantz played a poor back pass which was snapped up by Aubemayang.
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The fleet-footed winger drew Freiburg goalkeeper Roman Buerki and squared for Reus to tap into an empty net with nine minutes gone.
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Aubemayang then darted on to Ilkay Gundogan’s superb through ball and planted his shot past Buerki on 56 minutes.
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His second followed on 72 minutes when he fired home after some superb passing from Dortmund’s midfield trio of Reus, Shinji Kagawa and Jakob Blaczszykowski.
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But Dortmund must now prove the performance against their fellow-strugglers was no fluke when they host Mainz on Friday.
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“The third goal was great to watch, because you could see the confidence returning,” said Klopp.
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“I’m always ready to take the plunge into something positive and we have to prove ourselves again on Friday, but this goes some way towards our recovery.”