Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Quadruple Covers Up Borussia Dortmund Intensity Issues

Borussia Dortmund overcame their curse on Saturday, beating bogey team Hamburger SV 5-2 at Volksparkstadion. 

The Black and Yellows had last won there in January 2012 and lost five of the eight meetings since. That's a terrible record considering the Dino, as HSV is called in Germany, fought relegation in most of those years.

Head coach Thomas Tuchel, who lost his first away trip to northern Germany at the helm of the Ruhr side in one of the worst performances of an excellent maiden campaign last year, acknowledged the recent history against Hamburg played a role in the preparations for the game.

"We made the result the focus of our match preparations," the 43-year-old said in his press conference. He continued:

"

We were aware of this long run without a win and that this game would be followed by the international break and a home game with Bayern [Munich]. Today we absolutely had to win. By taking this approach, we would have no room for any excuses. It didn't matter whether it was spectacular football or a battle. We wanted this result.

"

A result they got, even though Tuchel thought the margin of victory was too high after Hamburg threatened to make a game out of the affair in the second half.

"You can see we are lacking in form a bit and that there is lots to work on," he added. Indeed, even a 5-2 away win cannot cover up that Dortmund, for what feels like the umpteenth time in a row, failed to go the distance in a match. Being four goals up after 48 minutes against the last-placed team in the Bundesliga should not serve as an excuse to slacken the reins.

That is what they did, however, allowing Nicolai Muller to score from a simple counter-attack and with a shot from distance. It could have got troublesome for Dortmund, especially considering Michael Gregoritsch had a goal disallowed for the slightest of pulls on BVB defender Matthias Ginter.

CARMEN JASPERSEN/Getty Images

Despite their two consecutive clean sheets, in the Revierderby against Schalke 04 and in the UEFA Champions League against Sporting CP, Dortmund's defence has looked susceptible in recent weeks. There seems to be little intensity in the way they protect their goal, and often all it takes to get behind the last line is a simple string of two or three quick passes.

Hamburg had infamously seen more players sent off this season (three) than they had scored goals (two), with American Bobby Wood previously the only player to find the net. Incredibly, Saturday's hosts had gone without a league goal since September 10. With Wood serving the first of a three-game suspension for violent conduct, it was hard to foresee who could trouble Dortmund.

Alas, the visitors have made life hard on themselves defensively against many opponents this campaign, having for example conceded three goals against FC Ingolstadt when they were the last-placed team in the Bundesliga. 

Getting his defence up to speed and playing sharper, more aggressive and more disciplined in their positioning will be Tuchel's biggest task. The return of team captain Marcel Schmelzer will help tremendously. Many only realise how good the 28-year-old is when he is out of the lineup.

Dortmund will need to find their stability quickly after the international break. Not only do Bayern come to town, but the Black and Yellows will also play upstarts 1899 Hoffenheim, Eintracht Frankfurt and Cologne in the final weeks ahead of the Bundesliga's winter break.

Against Hamburg, of course, they could rely on their attack and one man in particular to get the job done. In the perfect epilogue to the story of his midweek suspension, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was unstoppable, scoring four goals and assisting the fifth for Ousmane Dembele.

"I know I made a mistake last week, so I wanted to pay this back, to say sorry to everybody," the Gabonese said after the match, per the league's official site. "I realise that my trip to Milan was a mistake, and I wanted to make it up to the team and, above all, the coach."

Make up for it he did—in astonishing fashion. Aubameyang scored as many goals as Hamburg have managed all season in just 48 minutes.

It was the first quadruple for a Dortmund player since Robert Lewandowski's amazing night in the Champions League semi-final tie with Real Madrid in 2013 and the first in the Bundesliga since sporting director Michael Zorc hit four against Bayer Uerdingen in 1988.

Unlike both of those two performances, however, Aubameyang did it without a penalty—though, to be fair, two of the goals were tap-ins and goalkeeper Rene Adler could have kept his third out.

Aubameyang now has 11 goals in only nine matches this season, joining Cologne's Anthony Modeste at the top of the leaderboard. The Frenchman only managed a measly hat-trick against Hamburg on Matchday 9.

The 27-year-old Aubameyang will get all the attention after the match, but strong performances from teenagers Christian Pulisic and Emre Mor should not go unnoticed.

"In his 68 minutes, Pulisic assisted one, constantly drove Dortmund forward and looked the most creative player on the park," Deutsche Welle's Jonathan Harding wrote. "The 18-year-old really is having a breakout season."

Mor, meanwhile, showed maturity for Dortmund's second goal, pressuring Johan Djourou into a mistake—albeit with a little help from wing-back Lukasz Piszczek—and squaring the ball instead of trying to score himself.

Add in Dembele's goal after a lovely controlled assist from Aubameyang, and all three of Dortmund's wonderkids contributed their fair share in the big win.

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5-1! A lovely two-touch attack, set up by none other than Aubameyang, is finished by Ousmane Dembélé. #bvb: pic.twitter.com/TZlR8ZYsFW

— FP (@FussballPhotos) November 5, 2016"

It has to be noted Hamburg were not competitive in the first half. The hosts self-destructed with ludicrous mistakes and an utter lack of energy. It would have been interesting to see how the game would have developed had Dortmund not found an opener after just four minutes.

Tuchel somewhat curiously opted to play without his two best midfielders, as Julian Weigl and Mario Gotze sat on the bench for 90 minutes.

Against a massive Hamburg defence—head coach Markus Gisdol selected no fewer than seven natural defenders in his starting XI—it would likely have been difficult for Dortmund to chip away at that wall without the two best decision-makers in midfield.

As it came, Hamburg made it surprisingly easy for Dortmund to jump out to an insurmountable lead. That they still allowed the hosts to creep back into the game in the second half shows just how fragile the Black and Yellows' are at the moment.

"Today is not the right time for general criticism," Tuchel concluded after the match, and he was probably right. Having finally beaten their bogey team, fans ought to focus on the positives.

Aubameyang's positive reaction is atop that list.

 Lars Pollmann also writes for The Yellow Wall. You can follow him on Twitter.