Dortmund earned nothing but respect for their 3-1 UEFA Champions League (UCL) win over Barcelona in the week, even if it didn’t prevent them from bowing out of the competition at the quarter-final stage.
They certainly looked to have taken some encouragement from that in the opening stages, and they applied pressure on fellow top-six hopefuls Gladbach, but their wastefulness came back to bite them as they let in the opener inside 25 minutes.
It came from a penetrating run by defender Ko Itakura, who surged directly through the Dortmund ranks, exchanged a one-two with Kevin Stoger and expertly slotted past Gregor Kobel.
The visitors initially did well to quash any response, but Dortmund launched a barrage in the five minutes before the break, and somehow went into it as 3-1 leaders.
Pascal Gross’ low cross was brilliantly guided inside the near post by UCL top scorer Serhou Guirassy, before Yan Couto’s ball from a similar position found its way via Adeyemi to Felix Nmecha, who swept his finish into the bottom-left corner.
Just as Gerardo Seoane was looking forward to a reset at the interval, the misery got worse with Daniel Svensson heading in on the rebound after Guirassy’s shot was kept out by Omlin.
The hosts continued in the same vein after the break, but their progress was halted when VAR judged Nmecha’s contact on Tim Kleindienst enough for a penalty.
Stoger stepped up to make it four in his last six appearances against his favourite opponents, giving his side more than half an hour to find another. However, they did precious little with that remaining as things began to get scrappy, and the best chances instead went Dortmund’s way.
They too could do nothing to change the scoreline, but Niko Kovac will be satisfied with consecutive home wins for the first time since November. The three points look essential to Dortmund’s European qualification hopes, and they now lurk within two points of sixth-placed Mainz.
Failing to assail that lead would see them slump to their joint-worst Bundesliga finish since the 2007-08 season, while Gladbach have an even bigger task to make Europe for the first time in five seasons after losing for the first time in six away matches.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Daniel Svensson (Borussia Dortmund)