Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was again on target as Borussia Dortmund moved further clear of the relegation zone in the German Bundesliga on Friday with a 3-2 victory at VfB Stuttgart.
It was a third consecutive win for Jurgen Klopp's side, who will travel to Italy to face Juventus in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie next Tuesday with confidence restored.
Aubameyang, Ilkay Gundogan and Marco Reus were all on target for Dortmund, who move up to 10th place in the table, four points clear of the drop zone, ahead of the rest of the weekend's games.
They have also scored 10 goals in winning their last three matches, with their next league game the Ruhr derby at home to Schalke 04 next weekend.
"It was very important to go home with the three points, but we must keep working and concentrating so as not to give anything to our opponents, especially when it comes to Juve," Aubameyang told Sky television.
The Gabon striker had already seen one effort disallowed for offside before he opened the scoring after 25 minutes at the Mercedes-Benz-Arena with his fourth goal in three games.
Florian Klein equalised from the penalty spot, but Dortmund were back in front before the break when Shinji Kagawa set up Gundogan to score.
Reus pounced on poor defending to get Dortmund's third goal in the second half before Georg Niedermeier netted a consolation for the hosts at the death.
Stuttgart remain rooted to the foot of the table after what was their third successive defeat, and their sixth game without a win.
Leaders and defending champions Bayern Munich go to Paderborn on Saturday.
Source: AFP