Records tumble as ruthless Dortmund put eight past Legia

Borussia Dortmund 8-4 Legia Warsaw
(Kagawa 17', 18', Sahin 20', Dembele 29', Reus 32', 52', 90', Passlack 81’ – Prijovic 10',24', Kucharczyk 57', Nikolic 83’)

Borussia Dortmund hammered Legia Warsaw in the highest-scoring game in Champions League history.

The return of Marco Reus after six months out injured was the major prematch talking point at the Westfalenstadion, but that was only a subplot in an extraordinary evening of brilliant attacking and terrible defending in Dortmund.

Legia Warsaw took a shock early lead through Aleksandar Prijovic, whose well improvised finish with the outside of his foot left Roman Weidenfeller stranded.

That was the first goal that Dortmund, fresh off the back of their impressive Klassiker victory over Bayern Munich on Saturday, had conceded at home in just under five and a half hours of football, but it wasn’t to be their last.

Prijovic’s strike shocked them into action and they responded just seven minutes later through Shinji Kagawa, who found space at the back post to nod in Ousmane Dembele’s cross to make it 1-1.

The Dembele-Kagawa connection was in full flow and it yielded another goal just a minute later as Dembele shifted the ball to his left and the Japan international showed great feet to shrug off a defender and smash in.

Nuri Sahin added a Dortmund third two minutes later when he attacked a whipped Reus free-kick from the left and the ball crashed back off the keeper’s poor punch and into the net off the Turkish midfielder.

Prijovic clawed it back to 3-2 with a low finish from 12 yards after a strong run and cross by Bartosz Bereszyński, a goal which made Champions League history as this became the first game to produce five goals in the first 25 minutes. Prijovic almost scored what would have been a scarcely believable first half hat-trick for Warsaw moments later, but his shot came back off the bar.

Instead, Dortmund raced down the other end and scored a fourth through Dembele, who danced his way into a shooting position and lashed the ball into the roof of the net.

Reus joined the party with a close range finish after Sahin scooped the ball to Kagawa, who squared the ball to Reus for the tap-in.

That made it 5-2 to Dortmund and set a new Champions League record for the most number of goals scored in the first half of a game – but the glut of goals continued after the break.

Reus nabbed his second, prodding in from close range after Dembele’s cross from the left picked him out, the third assist of the night for the French teenager. But even at 6-2, Legia weren’t done and they narrowed the deficit to three goals with a fine goal on the counter-attack, finished neatly by Michal Kucharczyk.

Anyone that thought the goalcount would stop at nine was wrong. Felix Passlack got on the scoresheet for Dortmund, heading in after Legia keeper Radoslaw Cierzniak saved Andre Schürrle’s shot following good work by Christian Pulisic.

Nemanja Nikolic beat the offside trap and found the bottom corner to make the score 7-4, but Reus had the last say - scoring in injury time to ensure this extraordinary match eclipsed Monaco 8-3 Deportivo in 2003 as the highest scoring game this competition has ever witnessed.

This astonishing victory gives Dortmund a two-point lead over holders Real Madrid at the top of Group F, with the two teams to meet at the Bernabeu in two weeks. If Dortmund avoid defeat in the Spanish capital, they will go through as group winners.