Bender relieved to end Dortmund losing streak

Sven Bender admits another Borussia Dortmund defeat "would have been tough to swallow" and has expressed his relief at the 4-1 Bundesliga victory over Stuttgart on Sunday.

Thomas Tuchel's side were beaten 3-1 by Hamburg last Friday before slipping to a 1-0 defeat in last week's Europa League trip to face FC Krasnodar.

Dortmund responded in style to those back-to-back losses, however, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring twice in an emphatic win at Signal Iduna Park and Bender has now expressed the importance of the result.

"Three defeats in a row would have been a tough one to swallow, so it's good we won," he told Sky.