Chukwuemeka shines in Dortmund's 4-1 win against Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League

By Alessandro Schiavone in Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund 4-1 Athletic Bilbao

Goals: Svensson 28', Chukwuemeka 50', Guirassy 82' Brandt 90' +1 (D), Guruzeta 61' (AB)

Carney Chukwuemeka scored as Borussia Dortmund trashed pointless Athletic Bilbao 4-1 in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

Daniel Svensson put the hosts 1-0 up after 28 minutes before ex-Chelsea midfielder Chukwuemeka doubled his side's lead via a deflection five minutes after the restart.

Gorka Guruzeta gave the Spaniards renewed hope to bounce back from a 2-0 opening-day defeat to Arsenal when he pounced on a defensive mix-up in Dortmund's box to pull one back after 61 minutes.

Chukwuemeka came off for Brandt and as the game wore on, Dortmund resembled a doughnut in that they let the Spanish side cut through them like a knife through butter. They lost a number of midfield battles and were easily overrun.

Felix Nmecha replacing tiring Englishman Jobe Bellingham seemed to be the answer to many a problem for Niko Kovac's side on 69 minutes as Bilbao looked a different proposition after going 2-0 down.

And the Spaniards, who were without star man Nico Williams, came close to the equalizer only for Navarro to miss the target after cutting inside his right foot in the box. They also had a chipped goal ruled out for offside while Svensson made a crucial last-ditch interception to avoid a certain tap-in goal.

But Navarro's huge miss was the moment when the game had passed Athletic by as Dortmund mercllilessly went on to exploit Ernesto Valverde's high defensive line.

And seconds after Unai Simon, who won the Euros in Germany for Spain last year, denied Julian Brandt with a spectacular fingertip save the lid came off for good forthe Basques.

From the resulting corner, Marcel Sabitzer saw his shot diverted inwards by Serhous Guirassy before Brandt rounded off proceedings in injury-time.