Tuchel acclaims Dortmund's team effort

Thomas Tuchel praised Borussia Dortmund's ruthlessness after they cruised to a 3-0 win at Stuttgart on Saturday.

A second goal in as many Bundesliga games for 17-year-old Christian Pulisic and strikes from Shinji Kagawa and Henrikh Mkhitarayan kept the gap between Dortmund and league leaders Bayern Munich at seven points with three games to play.

A victory for Bayern next weekend would seal another Bundesliga title for the reigning champions and leave Tuchel's men focused on their meeting with the Bavarians in next month's DFB-Pokal final.

But Tuchel was impressed with the way Dortmund performed at the Mercedes-Benz Arena.

"We were aware how much Stuttgart offer offensively. We wanted to control the ball and the counter and we have succeeded," he said, in quotes reported by the Bundesliga's official website.

"We had made some careless mistakes in the first half but defended very consistently.

"We have scored good goals - a big compliment to the team. It was an absolutely top team performance. This makes us very happy."