Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang fired in a Europa League hat-trick for Borussia Dortmund on Thursday as the German club’s former manager, new Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp, prepared for his Anfield bow.
Klopp led Dortmund to two German titles and a Champions League final and the Bundesliga side brushed aside Azerbaijan’s FK Qabala 3-1 in Baku.
Qabala had not conceded in 450 minutes of European football at the Bakcell Arena until Aubameyang opened the scoring on 31 minutes with a curling 25-metre effort.
Seven minutes later he doubled the visitors’ advantage from close range, and got his third in the second half when he pounced on a loose ball after keeper Dmytro Bezotosniy produced a fine save to deny substitute Sven Bender.
Dodo got a stoppage time consolation goal for Qabala.
The win for new boss Thomas Tuchel left Dortmund top of Group C.
Among the teams playing later were Tottenham against Anderlecht in a repeat of the 1984 final and Klopp’s Liverpool who host Rubin Kazan from Russia.
A disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Sion on matchday two left Liverpool with just two points from their first two Group B fixtures, but the Anfield faithful will hope the arrival of Klopp can spark an upturn in fortunes.
Rubin, bottom of the group on one point, have also changed their coach since the group stage draw was made as Valeri Chaly took over as caretaker boss from Rinat Bilyaletdinov in September after the Kazan-based side lost six of their first seven league games.