New arrival Batshuayi reanimating struggling Dortmund

By Oliver Trust

BERLIN, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Scoring a double and giving an assist for the winner, that's the feat for the new arrival Michy Batshuayi in his debut when Borussia Dortmund beat Cologne 3-2 in the German Bundesliga on Friday.

The performance for the 24-year-old Belgian international, who only had two training sessions with Dortmund, couldn't have been more satisfying when the Blacks and Yellows reaped the full points over bottom side Cologne after three straight draws.

Dortmund fans praised their hero, and the German media were amazed.

"Auba who?" the tabloid Bild asking after the game. The Munich-based Sueddeutsche spoke of a "perfect debut", and the Frankfurt-based Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) assumed that "Batshuayi makes Dortmund forget about (Pierre-Emerick) Aubameyang."

The Nuremberg-based football magazine Kicker called Batshuayi's first game a "dreamlike debut", the Hamburg-based news magazine Spiegel called Batshuayi a "goal machine".

Batshuayi, joining the 2012 German champion on loan from FC Chelsea, knew exactly about the value of his performance for his new club, saying that "the first game is always a difficult one. But I am pleased with the start. The most important thing is: We won the game and achieved the three points."

"He had a perfect start. He is a great character and has all to make him a great striker," Borussia coach Peter Stoeger said, "we knew about his abilities, but who would have predicted that in the first game?"

"We want to qualify for the Champions League, and he wants to gain ground when it comes to the Belgian World Cup squad. For me, that is going well together," he added.

On Jan. 31, the Togolese rooted forward joined Dortmund after 29-year-old Aubameyang left for Arsenal on a 63.75 million euro deal.

And it was also a nerve wrecking game for Stoeger who for the first time returned to Cologne where he had acted as head coach for four and a half years before getting sacked and then hired by Dortmund only a week later last December.

As the race for the Champions League spots is a tight one in the Bundesliga, Dortmund was desperate for the win, and Batshuayi showed he can be an adequate replacement for Aubameyang even though he has to prove his ability in the long run.

Announcing he intends to improve and do even better would sound like a threat to the next opponents of Dortmund. Enditem