Marco Reus Back with a Bang in Historic, Wacky Night for Borussia Dortmund

In hindsight, we should have known something strange was about to happen in the Westfalenstadion on Tuesday night, when Borussia Dortmund took on Legia Warsaw on Matchday 5 of the UEFA Champions League group stage.

The Ruhr side announced a lineup with no fewer than nine new faces compared to the team that beat Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga on Saturday, with only centre-backs Marc Bartra and Matthias Ginter staying in the team.

Bartra, however, was not supposed to start, with an apparent transmission error leading to his inclusion over Sokratis Papastathopoulos. Dortmund even announced the Greek defender would make the start, only for UEFA to shut that down because the change came too late in the evening (via UEFA's German-language Twitter account).

Head coach Thomas Tuchel smiled away the odd episode, telling German broadcaster Sky before the match the starting XI was perfectly fine even with Bartra playing instead of Sokratis, arguably the team's most consistent player of the campaign so far.

Maybe the 43-year-old changed his mind after 10 minutes, when the Catalan defender first positioned himself badly and then was easily pushed away in a duel, which led to Legia shockingly going in front through a brilliant outside-of-the-boot goal from Aleksandar Prijovic.

What ensued for the rest of the game was perhaps the wackiest match in Champions League history, a constant back and forth of comical defending and clinical finishing. It was every social media editor's dream come true and every writer's worst nightmare if a deadline was to be met on the same night.

Dortmund and Warsaw produced the most goals in a single match in European football's premier competition ever, the final result of 8-4 one-upping a legendary group-stage match between AS Monaco and Deportivo La Coruna from 2003.

And there could have been even more goals, as both sides hit the post and Dortmund were denied a blatant penalty in the second half. 

"I'm very surprised how this match developed," Tuchel said after the game in perhaps the biggest understatement of the year, per the club's official website. "It's difficult to analyse objectively. This match is tough to evaluate at first glance."

Indeed, it would not only be borderline impossible to analyse just how the goals went down, it would also be pointless.

Legia have scored seven goals in the last two games against Real Madrid and Dortmund but are contenders for the questionable honour of being called the worst side in Champions League history.

Dortmund, meanwhile, played with a lineup that will never be seen again in a game they knew they would win 99 out of 100 times. Even after conceding three goals, Tuchel took off Bartra and brought on Erik Durm, leaving the Black and Yellows with one learned defender, Ginter, for the final 30 minutes.

If we allow ourselves one genuine takeaway amid all the banter this match provided, it is that Marco Reus is back and looks to be in outstanding form.

The 27-year-old made his long-awaited season debut after overcoming muscular issues that had also cost him an appearance for Germany at Euro 2016, playing for the first time in 185 days.

He scored a hat-trick (if his third goal in stoppage time is not ultimately considered an own goal by UEFA) and assisted one of Ousmane Dembele's goals, but, more than his scoring contribution against Legia's laughable "defence," the fact that he looked spry for 90 minutes was encouraging.

At one point in the second half, Tuchel offered to take him off, but Reus signalled to the sideline he wanted to stay on the pitch, proving there was no pain or fatigue after a months-long injury lay-off.

"It was fantastic that it worked out so well," the head coach said about Reus' comeback, again per the club's website. "A fantastic performance which highlights the quality that we have been without for months. He has been sorely missed."

The absence of perhaps the team's biggest star has almost been overlooked when analysts dissected Dortmund's up-and-down start to the season, as this writer argued in an earlier piece, with most, if not all, attention going to the major departures the Black and Yellows suffered in the transfer market.

Even though it was only against Legia, it seems both the club's and Reus' patience will be rewarded. Whereas he often looked sluggish out of the blocks coming back from injuries, this time it seems they waited for the 27-year-old to regain his form through training and not match practice, allowing him to make an impact straight away.

The most natural goalscorer Dortmund have outside of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who surprisingly did not score in his 20-minute cameo off the bench on Tuesday, Reus adds another dimension to the Black and Yellows in attack, making them even more dangerous and unpredictable.

The man himself was naturally delighted with the match, telling Sky (h/t Stefan Buczko for The Yellow Wall): "This is how you would imagine your comeback after such a long time. I looked forward to this moment and worked very hard for it."

Reus' comeback provided the biggest feel-good story of the match, trumping goals for Nuri Sahin and Shinji Kagawa, who may well be playing their last few matches for the club ahead of the winter transfer window, or a maiden goal for Felix Passlack.

However fun the game was for neutrals and fans in the stadium, however, the defensive horror show has to be a worry for Tuchel.

It was Roman Weidenfeller's first of seven games between the sticks in lieu of the injured Roman Burki, and, while it would be harsh to blame him for any of the four goals he conceded, it was hardly a confidence-inducing start to his stint as the No. 1 goalkeeper.

The 36-year-old also produced the hilarious highlight of the evening—quite the accomplishment given the competition for that distinction—when he inexplicably tried an overhead kick for a clearance instead of simply catching the ball with his hands:

It was that kind of game for Weidenfeller. The 2014 FIFA World Cup winner has enough experience to shrug off the night as a one-off event, with Tuchel pointing out the veteran "won't particularly need advice or encouragement from me."

However, with important Bundesliga fixtures and the play-off for the group win with Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu coming up, fans would rest easier if Weidenfeller had a more relaxed time on Saturday, when Dortmund take on Eintracht Frankfurt in the league.

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