After an exhilarating football performance, Borussia Dortmund can plan to take part in the Champions League.

The dream debut of 17-year-old Tom Rothe and two goals from Erling Haaland were highlights in the sovereign 6: 1 (5: 0) against VfL Wolfsburg.

And that a week before the hit at FC Bayern next Saturday (6.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky).

With a twelve-point lead and a significantly better goal difference, BVB can only theoretically gamble away their Champions League participation in the last four games.

Wolfsburg's lead over the relegation spot could shrink to as little as five points again on Sunday after the highest half-time deficit in the club's 25-year Bundesliga history.

The peat festival started, of all people, as a teenager and debutant Rothe (24th minute).

Axel Witsel and Manuel Akanji (28') quickly followed suit, Emre Can (35') and Haaland twice (38'/54') scored the other goals.

For Haaland, this ended an unusual dry spell of almost three months, five appearances and 384 minutes of play without a goal.

Wolfsburg's Ridle Baku (82nd) ​​finally prevented the third 0-6 defeat in Wolfsburg's Bundesliga history after those in Munich in 2017 and 2019.

The Dortmund fans among the 79,200 spectators fervently called out their last names when stadium announcer Norbert Dickel read out the line-up.

At number 36, some paused briefly, first looked at the scoreboard and then hesitantly called out “Rothe”.

The U19 national player had never been in the Bundesliga squad until Saturday.

The absence of Raphael Guerreiro and the fact that Nico Schulz was apparently not quite fit washed the left-back straight into the starting XI.

Rothe is only the eighth youngest debutant in Dortmund Bundesliga history, but the youngest defender.

His goal made him the fourth youngest Bundesliga goalscorer.

BVB was almost caught off guard, but goalkeeper Gregor Kobel made a strong save from three meters against Lukas Nmecha (3rd).

After that, only Dortmund, who were actually weakened by replacements, played.

After the 0:1 Wolfsburg completely lost orientation, BVB got into a frenzy and added four goals in less than 14 minutes.

At VfL, the otherwise strong goalkeeper Koen Casteels joined the confusion, at least the goals from Witsel and Can seemed to be durable.

BVB last scored five goals before the break nine years ago in a 6-1 win in Fürth.

This time it initially seemed to become even clearer when Haaland scored for the second time.

And if Casteels hadn't held up well a few times, it would have ended even worse for Wolfsburg.

The consolation goal was made possible by a gross error by Marin Pongracic, on loan from Wolfsburg, who recently sued VfL for a bonus payment.

Dortmund coach Marco Rose helped two other teenagers make their Bundesliga debuts in the 88th minute: Jamie Bynoe-Gittens (17) and Lion Semic (18).