Marco Reus reveals why he let Paco Alcácer take his penalty | OneFootball

Marco Reus says he wanted to give Paco Alcácer a confidence boost after allowing the striker to take a late penalty in Sunday’s 4-0 win over Freiburg.

Goals from Jadon Sancho, Mario Götze, Reus and Alcácer give Lucien Favre’s side three points which ensured they are still breathing down Bayern Munich’s neck in the race for the Bundesliga title.

Alcácer came off the bench in the second half and BVB’s captain has explained why he “didn’t think twice” about letting the Spaniard take the 87th minute penalty.

“Paco has had a difficult time of late,” Reus told BVB TV.

“I’ve always said that it doesn’t depend on any one individual, but that we must work together as a team.

“Since breaking his arm, Paco hasn’t been satisfied that he’s mostly been making substitute appearances.

“It’s important to reward every player, even in difficult times.

“Personally, I didn’t think twice about giving him the penalty.”

Dortmund face rivals Schalke in the Revierderby next Saturday, and Reus says the dominant manner of their victory at Freiburg was just the tonic before such a huge game.

“It was slightly more difficult than it looked,” he added.

“Freiburg have performed well at home against the big teams and are tactically at a good level. We knew that. But we produced another good performance today.

“We were very compact and very dynamic, we got stuck into the challenges well and we played some good football too, especially in the second period.

“We’re delighted that we managed to win by this margin too.”