Jurgen Klopp a Happy Man as His Team came from a Goal Down to beat Mainz 4-2

Jurgen Klopp hailed his Borussia Dortmund players for the way in which they responded to the concession of a "slapstick" early goal in Friday's "big win" over Mainz.

Struggling BVB found themselves 1-0 down after just under 60 seconds of play at Signal Iduna Park, with Elkin Soto netting from outside the area in spectacular fashion after a defensive mix-up involving centre-half Neven Subotic and goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller.

However, Dortmund came storming back in the second half, with goals from Subotic, Marco Reus, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nuri Sahin earning the hosts a 4-2 win that moved them away from the Bundesliga's drop zone and up to 14th place in the table.

Klopp, whose team achieved their first back-to-back Bundesliga wins since the start of September, is now desperately hoping that victory over a relegation rival can belatedly kick-start BVB's season.

"We deserved to win," the BVB coach told reporters after the game. "This was a big win for us as it was a six-point game.

"But the severity of our task is unaffected. The whole season remains a big challenge for us.

"The beginning of the game was horrible, with Mainz scoring in the first minute. The goal was slapstick; it was a terrible start.

"But we responded very well. We knew that we would come back if we just kept playing our game. I said to my team: 'If we play as a collective, we are really, really strong.'

"We knew we would create the chances if we continued to play well and stay on track and, in the end, we scored great goals, so all is well."

Dortmund, who have finished as runners-up for the past two seasons, will be hoping to make it three wins on the bounce when they travel to Stuttgart on February 20.