Niclas Füllkrug netted his first Borussia Dortmund hat-trick in their 3-1 win against Bochum on Saturday evening which put Die Schwarzgelben back into the top four, but the German forward admitted that there’s still room for improvement within their performances.
“Thanks to Donny, who won the penalty, we made a great start to the game. However, Bochum luckily came back. We often failed to find our team-mates with the final ball. We were sometimes diligent with our high press, but we didn’t then do it when we especially needed to press high. Three games won, 10-1 goals and never in danger – nevertheless, there is room for improvement with several things. You can see that it is currently doing us good to be able to train a lot and work on things. After every training session, I score my three penalties.” – Füllkrug to BVB-TV.
Donyell Malen was brought down by Bochum’s Manuel Riemann inside three minutes with Füllkrug calmly dispatching the penalty. But Bochum pulled a goal back through BVB’s Nico Schlotterbeck after the German defender put the ball in his own net after miscommunication with Alexander Meyer.
Füllkrug would again put his side in the lead in the 72nd minute after finding himself on the end of Marcel Sabitzer’s looped cross, before completing his hat-trick in the 90th minute after Jamie Bynoe-Gittens was brought down inside the area.
Füllkrug’s hat-trick takes his tally to nine goals in 19 Bundesliga games this season, while also registering five assists.
GGFN | Daniel Pinder
