Reus hails Dortmund's tactical masterclass

Player Rater winner Marco Reus said Borussia Dortmund's tactics "worked perfectly" as last season's runners-up took a 4-2 lead back to Germany from the first leg of their UEFA Champions League round of 16 tie against FC Zenit. However, the forward believed the second-half display in St Petersburg still left room for improvement, while Łukasz Piszczek paid tribute to the "world-class" Robert Lewandowski who scored Dortmund's final two goals.

Marco Reus, Dortmund midfielder
We started very well. Our tactics worked perfectly, we took an early 2-0 lead and put in a fine display, especially in the first half. In the second period we slacked off a bit and this should serve as a lesson to us for the return leg. It was very important to start well and we did just that. Our 2-0 advantage was deserved, as was the final result, I think. I always say it doesn't matter what the individual does, but to win as a team, and that's what we have shown today.

We should take it game by game. Today we took the first step towards the next round, but you could also see that an away team is always capable of scoring. We did a lot of the work today and so a lot of things would have to happen for us not to go through in the return leg. Nevertheless, we have to be on our guard.

I am, of course, feeling good about my performance. It was important that the team won and we are very happy. We will take it one match at a time. In a couple of weeks we have the return leg in our stadium and we want to go through then.

Łukasz Piszczek, Dortmund defender
We had quite a good start with the two goals and that made life a bit easier for us. But we were also very focused the whole time and were a bit unlucky to concede those two goals. I don't think we were lacking concentration when we conceded, those two goals were a bit of a fluke for Zenit. We stood up well and were unlucky in those situations. We did well and I hope we play as well in the return leg.

Robert [Lewandowski] is a world-class player. We are happy he is still with us and hope he will continue to play as well as he did today and over the past few weeks.

We had to show a reaction after that match in Hamburg [a 3-0 Bundesliga defeat last weekend], as there were a lot of mistakes. It was not good for us, but we knew we had a very important match coming up and strongly focused on getting a very good result. We managed that.