Football
Stephan Uersfeld, Germany correspondent 9y

Marco Reus, Mats Hummels joy as Dortmund dominate Schalke derby

Borussia Dortmund recorded their fourth consecutive Bundesliga win with a 3-0 victory over Schalke in one of the most one-sided derbies in years.

Dortmund put a spectacular end to their crisis on Saturday, which only a month ago threatened the 2011 and 2012 Bundesliga champions' top-flight status. The 3-0 win over their Revierderby rivals did not reveal the magnitude of BVB's superiority at the Westfalenstsadion.

Jurgen Klopp's side had 31 shots at Schalke's goal, but only managed to break the deadlock after 78 minutes when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang put the ball past young goalkeeper Timon Wellenreuther -- with the striker and Marco Reus celebrating by donning Batman and Robin masks.

Goals by Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Reus in the next couple of minutes then sealed BVB's highest home win against Schalke in 17 years.

"It was the match of the year, and we won it. There's really nothing better. I think it was a deserved win," Reus told Sky after the match. The BVB attacker has now been on target in each of his past five games, and was praised by kicker magazine as the "engine" behind the turnaround.

On Saturday, the 25-year-old -- who signed a new deal with the club last month -- had eight shots at Schalke's goal and set up another seven chances for BVB.

"It was a fantastic performance from us today. We can be very pleased and Schalke can count themselves lucky to have only lost 3-0," Dortmund captain Mats Hummels told reporters. "We have finally managed to flip the switch, and we want to continue in the same vein."

With 11 games left to be played in the Bundesliga season, Schalke dropped out of the Champions League ranks, but still have a seven-point lead on their local rivals Dortmund.

However, Roberto Di Matteo side only covered a combined 106.4 kilometres during the match -- fewer than any other team this season -- and had an all-time low of three shots at the BVB goal.

Die Knappen have managed just one point and a single goal from their last three league games, with Di Matteo telling his postmatch news conference: "We need to think about how we will continue in the future: Personnel-wise as well as system-wise. We need to do more with the ball.

"First and foremost, we have to apologise to our fans for a bad team performance in the derby. We had planned things differently. We didn't implement our ideas. We were bad as a collective, and that includes me."

Schalke's sporting director Horst Heldt told reporters: "We maybe were in the match for two or three minutes at the start. It was a miracle it stayed 0-0 for so long.

"It was a horrible performance. We can only apologise to our fans."

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