Shinji Kagawa celebrated his return to the Bundesliga with a goal in Borussia Dortmund's 3-1 victory over Freiburg on Saturday afternoon.
It was a bright start to the match from the hosts, with Freiburg goalkeeper Roman Burki being forced into an early save to deny Kevin Grosskreutz.
Dortmund had to wait until the 34th minute for another chance to arrive, but they took full advantage on this occasion as Adrian Ramos collected a clever pass from Grosskreutz before drilling the ball past Burki.
Grosskreutz's runs forward were proving to be a problem for the visitors, and he was inches away from scoring Dortmund's second when he dragged an effort just wide of the post.
Freiburg's attempts to remain just one goal behind before the break ended in failure as Kagawa, making his second debut for Dortmund after moving back to the club from Manchester United, slotted home after linking up with Ramos.
Despite Dortmund's dominance in the first half, it was Freiburg who threatened for the first time after the break as Jonathan Schmid tested Roman Weidenfeller with a looping header.
The hosts quickly took control of the match once again, but Henrikh Mkhitaryan was guilty of being wasteful in front of goal as he sent a great chance over the crossbar.
Ciro Immobile, introduced as a substitute in the second half, went close to sending a message to Jurgen Klopp with a great individual run, before seeing his shot pushed away by Burki.
Another substitute, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, wrapped up the win with 12 minutes remaining by catching Burki off balance with a fine strike from inside a congested area.
However, there would be a late consolation for Freiburg when Oliver Sorg broke free of the Dortmund defence to stroke the ball past Wiedenfeller.
Callum Mulvihill
