Kramer saves Dortmund

It was undeniably the moment of the game: just after Borussia Mönchengladbach's Christoph Kramer scored one of this season's strangest own goals, Dortmund player Sebastian Kehl went up to him and put his arm around him, as the rest of his team celebrated.

"I told him that I feel sorry for him," Kehl told reporters after the game. "That was a really stupid situation there, because of the way the ball bounced. I had sympathy for him, even though I was happy about the goal."

After consoling Kramer, Kehl then went to celebrate the goal with his teammates. Kramer's 44 meter (48.12 yards) back pass, which ended up looping over his own goalkeeper, is sure to make this year's highlights reel.

"As soon the ball left my foot, I thought to myself: oh no!," said Kramer, commenting on the first own goal in his Bundesliga career. The Gladbach player is slowly becoming Germany's unluckiest player. This year in July, he already suffered the embarrassment of being knocked out in the World Cup final, he says he can't remember the game at all.

Strong begin from Dortmund

Despite the lucky goal, Dortmund deserved to win this game though. Over the full 90 minutes they managed 22 shots on goal, to Gladbach's one. Even before kick off, it seemed Dortmund was going in the right direction. Coach Jürgen Klopp had team leaders Roman Weidenfeller and Marco Reus in the starting lineup, despite the fact that both of them were not at quite full fitness. It seemed that, after the qualification for the next round of the Champions League, BVB wanted to stay on a roll. Despite a huge amount of pressure on Klopp's team going into the game, the Dortmund team started strongly.

The hosts defended well and built up play after play, putting their guests under continual pressure. Especially the team's attacking masterminds, Marco Reus and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang disrupted Gladbach when they had possession. The feared BVB tactic of pressing was finally working again.

Even Christoph Kramer was impressed. He praised Dortmund's players after the game saying, "they sapped us of all our energy. They were well prepared, they really shut us down brilliantly."

Body language

Cheered on by thousands of Dortmund fans, the BVB players seemed to ooze confidence. It was the sort of positive body language, that had been missing recently from Dortmund's Bundesliga appearances.

The team also combined well for a series of moves, many of them started by Sebastian Kehl, and aided by Marco Reus and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. After just about every successful combination, Jürgen Klopp applauded heartily. Dortmund's coach also regularly turned around to his team's fans to ask them to keep their support going.

"You could see it, the pressure just started to melt away eventually," Klopps said after the game. "The team played brilliant football."

A long way to go

But despite an impressive performance against Gladbach, Dortmund are just at the start of their turnaround. With just ten points in the Bundesliga they are now in 16th position. For Germany's second strongest team, that's surely a long way off their goals for this season.

After the game, you might of thought that Dortmund had just won the German Cup: Coach Klopp spent plenty of time just taking in deep breaths, the players hugged happily and then stood there, enjoyed the cheering from their fans. The pressure that the team had been under was clear.

"I haven't felt a win for so long that it's tough to put my feelings into words," Klopp said, adding that he would make sure his team stayed focused though.

"We don't feel as if anything special has happened. We have to get out of this situation we are in. Next up, we are going to play against Paderborn - it's going to be the match of the season for them."