Marco Reus said Borussia Dortmund's victory in their Bundesliga opener was "well-deserved" after his side battered Borussia Monchengladbach on Saturday night.
Reus had a goal and an assist to help Dortmund get off on the right foot under new coach Thomas Tuchel.
"That was a real endurance test, which we overcame very well indeed. We wanted to start the league in a good position and had a really strong team in front of us," Reus said.
"Gladbach were the best team in the second half of last season. We put them under pressure from the start and forced them to make errors."
Reus' powerful shot beat Yann Sommer inside his near post after a quarter of an hour, and turned provider in the second half when he pulled the ball back for Henrikh Mkhitaryan to drill into the top left-hand corner.
"The important thing was that we took our chances," Reus said. "We played very well with the ball and remained calmly in our positions and waited for our chances.
"The team performance was terrific from the first to the last minute and the victory is well-deserved.
Mats Hummels also played a part in the buildup to two of Dortmund's goals. The defender said his side's success was a result of executing their strategy.
"We executed our game plan brilliantly," Hummels said. "If we continue like this we can be very successful. A great start to the season: four matches and four wins -- we can go very far indeed.
"To be honest it was sheer coincidence that I was involved in the goals because the others played well until the end.
"Of course it's nice it turned out the way it did. So far everything is going very well and we want to build from this.
"We don't want to take anything for granted though as it is still early days."