Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang hat-trick secures victory for Borussia Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund have comfortably dispatched of Qabala in the Europa League, courtesy of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's hat-trick.

The Bundesliga giants remain top of Group C as a result of the 3-1 win, which was inspired by their in-form forward at the Gabala City Stadium.

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Home keeper Dmytro Bezotosniy was kept busy in the opening stages to keep out efforts from Jonas Hoffman and Matthias Ginter, as Dortmund closed in on an early goal.

Die Borussen did not have it all their own way, though, as Sergei Zenjov came close to making a breakthrough before Dodo had an effort cleared off the line by Ginter.

Dortmund were finally up and running on the half-hour mark after Aubameyang picked out the top corner with a fine curled effort to make it 12 goals in 12 games at that stage.

There was better to come from the Gabon international, who doubled his personal tally for the evening when firing home following some nice link-up play with Shinji Kagawa.

Zenjov was able to test Roman Weidenfeller in the early stages of the second half as the hosts pushed for a route back into the game, but Aubameyang and Hofmann also came close to adding a third up the other end of the field.

Thomas Tuchel's side, who now have seven points from their first three games in Europe's secondary competition, made sure of the points 18 minutes from time when Bezotosniy pushed Sven Bender's shot into the path of Aubameyang to round off his hat-trick.

Bottom side Qabala did manage to pull a goal back late on, though, as Dodo slotted home from close range to deny the Germans a clean sheet in Azerbaijan.