Borussia Dortmund vs. Paderborn: Winners and Losers from DFB Pokal
Borussia Dortmund cruised to the last 16 of the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday, obliterating 2.Bundesliga side SC Paderborn, 7-1, in the Signal Iduna Park.
Dortmund head coach Thomas Tuchel made three changes to his winning side from Sunday's game against Augsburg, with Julian Weigl, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Adrian Ramos replacing Sven Bender, Marco Reus and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, respectively.
Reus wasn't even in the squad with muscular problems that Tuchel called minor in an interview with German broadcaster Sky before the game.
The visitors made two changes, as Marcel Ndjeng and Srdjan Lakic played instead of Hauke Wahl and Nick Proschwitz.
Paderborn started the game very impressively and had Dortmund scrambling a bit, with Lakic scoring the opener in the 21st minute.
Going behind seemed to spark Dortmund, who only took four minutes to equalise through Ramos. Goals from Gonzalo Castro and Shinji Kagawa saw them go into half-time with a two-goal cushion.
Ilkay Gundogan scored from the spot nine minutes into the second half, killing whatever hope was left for the underdogs. Castro, Lukasz Piszczek and Mkhitaryan scored three more goals to make the game an absolute blowout.
The hosts advanced to the next round and kept their current string of good performances going, while Paderborn's new head coach Stefan Effenberg suffered his first-ever loss on the touchline.
Here's a look at the winners and losers from the game.
Winner: Adrian Ramos
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The striker got his first real chance to shine under Tuchel, with the game marking his first start for Dortmund in a competitive match since December 2014.
In what has to be encouraging for the coy Colombian as well as his club, Ramos took the chance and ran with it. He had a hand in all three of Dortmund's goals before the break, scoring the important equaliser in the 25th minute and assisting Castro's goal five minutes later.
A player who seems to need confidence and trust even more than others, Wednesday's game could go a long way in helping Ramos become the reliable back-up striker Dortmund desperately need in a long and strenuous season.
His team-mates know how important this kind of performance was for the 29-year-old, with left-back Marcel Schmelzer showing his delight in Ramos rewarding himself in the mixed zone after the game (via Sebastian Wessling).
Loser: Stefan Effenberg
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Paderborn's appointment of the former Bundesliga and Germany player was met with a lot of ridicule, since Effenberg had made headlines with personal escapades rather than his work as a TV pundit for Sky, but the results in the 2.Bundesliga proved Paderborn right so far.
And Effenberg can even take some positives from Wednesday's game, despite the horrendous scoreline. In the first half hour, his team were a spitting image of Effenberg's on-field persona: They were aggressive, bold and combative.
In the second half, however, Paderborn crumbled with each goal and basically surrendered. Effenberg could be seen growing more and more frustrated with his team on the touchline, as if he was disgusted by the lack of effort in the last 30 minutes of the game.
With Paderborn being the 47-year-old's first coaching job, his handling of this shellacking will be one to watch.
Winner: Gonzalo Castro
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Castro backed up his recent uptick in form with a man-of-the-match performance on Wednesday.
The 28-year-old, whose emergence we highlighted after the Augsburg match, was involved in four goals against Paderborn.
He assisted Ramos' equaliser with a magnificent, outside-of-the-boot through ball that split the defence. Castro then put his team in front with a calm and collected finish, a half-volley from close range.
His assist for Shinji Kagawa to make it 3-1 was perhaps the cream of the crop. When the Japanese found Castro inside the penalty box, Dortmund's man of the hour played the ball back to Kagawa with a simple but brilliant one-touch pass that left Kagawa with an open run at Lukas Kruse's goal.
Wednesday marked the second game in a row Castro played on the right side of the attack, a spot where he seems to have found a home for Dortmund now.
Local paper Ruhr Nachrichten graded him as the best player on the pitch with a perfect grade of 1.0, equating to a rating of 10/10.
Loser: Roman Burki
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The Switzerland international committed one of the cardinal sins of goalkeeping in the 21st minute: He overestimated his skill on the ball.
The sequence started with a bad decision by Burki, who after the game admitted his throw-out to Gundogan wasn't a good idea (via Sebastian Wessling). The German was immediately under pressure and had to play the ball back to his 'keeper.
Burki chose not to punt the ball away and rather tried to sidestep Paderborn's Lakic. The Croat wasn't fooled, however, and stole the ball from Burki's feet to score the opener.
While the goal is but a side note in the 7-1 win, Burki acknowledged his howler after the game, while also appreciating Dortmund's famous yellow wall giving him consolation with chants in an interview with the club's TV channel, BVBTotal.
Winner: Thomas Tuchel
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Dortmund have now scored a whopping 61 goals in 19 matches under their new head coach. Wednesday marked the second time they scored seven in a game.
Tuchel has to be pleased with his team's prolific offense, and he can be encouraged by the performance even more than usual.
That his side managed to thrash Paderborn without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who, one can very well argue, is the hottest striker on the planet right now and Marco Reus, who scored three goals in his last two Bundesliga matches, has to bring a smile to the 42-year-old's face.
Werder Bremen, Dortmund's next opponent on Saturday, will surely have taken notice that Dortmund's two most natural goalscorers will be rested and hungry for their next goals.
Tuchel made his elation known after the game, telling the media (via Ruhr Nachrichten) how proud he and his team were about their making the fans ecstatic with the impressive display.
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