Borussia Dortmund’s ‘Rolls-Reus’ engine purring ahead of Uefa Champions League trip to Real Madrid

Marco Reus has been obliged to watch a lot of football from the margins these past two and half years. He was a long way distant when his Germany won the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, and Andre Schurrle made the pass for Mario Gotze to settle the final in extra time.

Reus, the blond Usain Bolt of their generation, was absent injured, but not forgotten. Touchingly, Gotze displayed a shirt with Reus’s name on it during the celebrations.

That spell sidelined, with a ligament problem, gave away to another absence, and then another, as the stop-start career of one the most brilliant attacking players in Germany lurched towards its longest injury lay-off towards the end of last season. More muscle problems meant a slow, sapping summer of treatment for Reus, while the comings and goings at his Borussia Dortmund sent out to him some pessimistic signals about the club's willingness to rely on his availability.

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Reus has long been the jewel in the crown of a club who have good reason to feel jittery about their ability to hang on to their best. Gotze, Robert Lewandowksi and Mats Hummels have moved to Bayern Munich in the past four years, and dynamic midfielders such as Ilkay Gundogan and Shinji Kagawa were lured to English football. Turnover was high again in the last transfer window, and several of the incoming players seemed to tick boxes that are part of Reus's rich catalogue of talents: Dortmund signed Schurrle, zippy down the flanks; they bought Ousmane Dembele, the nimble bright young star of French football; Gotze returned from Bayern to add guile to the forward line.

Reus watched all this and wondered, where, after six months out, he might fit back in. The answer has been emphatic. Saturday's 4-1 blitzing of Borussia Monchengladbach, a fine rehearsal for Wednesday's Uefa Champions League encounter with Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, featured three Reus assists. It introduced a new catchphrase. Dortmund, the German media decided, had found their "Perfect Triangle" of a front three – Reus, Dembele and the quicksilver Pierre-Emerick Aubamayeng, now racing away as the Bundesliga's top scorer. Schurrle and Gotze were on the substitutes bench.

It was Reus’s first Bundesliga start for six months. Stay fit, and he will be wearing the captain’s armband by right. Thomas Tuchel, who had been critical of the team last week, praised Reus’s brilliant return to the starting XI. “It is fantastic how he has come back,” Tuchel said. “He has such personality, such charisma and what he does for us is unique.”

Reus, 27, would bring out the best in others, Tuchel suggested, not least in Dembele, who is 19. “Ousmane will have less weight to carry with Reus back. He is a leader.”

If the show Reus provided against Monchengladbach, full of slick back-heels and neat turns, was not enough to put Madrid on alert for a fixture which, with Dortmund two points above second-placed Real, will decide who finishes top of the group, then the previous Champions League matchday should be. Reus scored two and set up three in the extraordinary 8-4 win over Legia Warsaw. One more goal on Wednesday and Dortmund will reach 20 in the competition so far.

In the days when Reus was still counting down to his comeback, back in late September, the defending European champions, Madrid, and Dortmund drew 2-2 in Germany, Aubameyang and Schurrle each responding to Madrid taking the lead to earn the point. Since then, the Spaniards have extended their unbeaten run across competitions to 33 games, the latest a 1-1 draw at Barcelona, a point gained thanks to a last-minute Sergio Ramos goal.

Madrid, top of the Primera Liga, feel buoyed by having kept Lionel Messi and Neymar at bay on Saturday. But they now face a trial by attacking speed, and a Dortmund thrilled to have their "Rolls-Reus" engine purring again.

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