FREIBURG IM BREISGAU, GERMANY - APRIL 21: Marco Reus of Borussia Dortmund celebrates after scoring his team's second goal during the Bundesliga match between Sport-Club Freiburg and Borussia Dortmund at Schwarzwald-Stadion on April 21, 2019 in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. (Photo by TF-Images/Getty Images)

The 50+1 Rule: What it is, and why it is important that it stays

The 50+1 Rule: What it is, and why it is important that it stays by Kenneth Wilson

After leading his side to a comprehensive victory over Freiburg on Sunday, Marco Reus has issued a rallying cry to his team as they aim to win their first Bundesliga title since 2012.

Marco Reus was in inspired form on Sunday as he scored one, got two assists and won a penalty to help Borussia Dortmund thrash Freiburg 4-0. It was a dominant performance against a tricky opponent that showed that the Black and Yellows are up for the fight and they are not going anywhere just yet. And the Borussia Dortmund captain wants his teammates to keep believing that they can lift The Meisterschale come the end of the season.

“In terms of the result it was the perfect afternoon, but in terms of the game itself it was difficult,” Reus told the club’s official website. “Today we delivered a cohesive team performance from the first minute and were able to go up a notch in the second period.” “The margin of victory was perhaps a bit too high, but we’re very happy with the win. We need to focus on our performance – which hasn’t been at the level we’ve hoped for in the past few weeks. It’s important that we stick together in the difficult moments and continue to believe that we can become champions.” “We want to keep up the pressure on Bayern until the end, and we managed to do that again today by winning.”

Reus also revealed why he let substitute Paco Alcacer take the penalty for the fourth goal.

“Paco has had a difficult time of late. 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.”

Next up for Borussia Dortmund is a home game against the struggling Schalke 04 and Marco Reus wants his team to “walk all over” their local rivals and maintain the pressure on Bayern Munich.

“We need to recover over the course of the next two days, and then we’ll prepare ourselves for the derby. That won’t be an ordinary game, we know that. But we’re playing at home, our confidence is high and we want to stay in the running.” “It will not be a normal game, we know that. But we play at home, and we have now regained confidence. We want to stay up there and must walk all over Schalke.”

Mario Gotze, who netted his fifth league goal of the season on Sunday, echoed his captain’s thoughts and said that anything is still possible in the Bundesliga title race.

“The three points are the most important thing. It’ll do us good to win 4-0 here. We have our next game coming up next weekend. We need to ensure that we get the three points there. Everything is still possible. We’ll keep going and give it our all.”

While Roman Burki stressed the importance of the upcoming Revierderby, saying that it is Borussia Dortmund’s most important game of the season even though Schalke are struggling near the foot of the table.

“No matter where they stand [in the table], this [the derby] is the most important game of the season for us. Of course we want to win that.”

Borussia Dortmund are currently one point behind league leaders Bayern Munich. And with just four games to go until the end of the season, this title race is sure to go down the wire.