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Michael Zorc has praised Borussia Dortmund's players for "giving everything they had" in their 2-1 Champions League win over Sporting on Tuesday.

The Dortmund sporting director told the club's official website that Thomas Tuchel's men were deserving winners of the clash away to the Portuguese side, despite a nervy finish to the encounter.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's early goal and a rare strike from Julian Weigl had handed the German outfit the initiative at the Estádio José Alvalade, but Bruno Cesar's goal 23 minutes from time ensured that Dortmund were forced to fight to hold on to their lead.

Speaking in the wake of the win, Zorc stated his overall happiness at the Bundesliga club managing to achieve victory from a tough Group F clash.

He said: "The final phase of the game was thrilling. After the score had gone to 2-1, we didn't really manage to control the ball and the opposition as well as we had done.

"Prior to that I was really impressed by the performance, especially given the fact that we were using two players from the A-Youth team, and sent on a third in Dzenis Burnic. That is not something you can simply ignore and get on with as though everything were normal.

Great goal from Julian Weigl pic.twitter.com/9DABm0iFYl

"Everybody gave everything they had today physically. We played (Lukasz) Piszczek, (Marc) Bartra and Sokratis (Papastathopoulos), who had previously been injured and were not in peak condition.

"We need to finish things off now at home. In the return leg against Sporting, we can make a huge step towards the round of 16."

Meanwhile, match-winner Weigl expressed his delight at registering his first ever goal for Dortmund - the midfielder fizzing in a right foot effort than nestled into the bottom right corner of the net.

He said: "I am not really sure what I did for the goal! I am ecstatic that I finally found the back of the net.

"The manager keeps saying we have got to take our chances, and I managed that tonight. Sporting showed fight though in attempting to get themselves back into the game.

"But we gave our all, and we are happy that we made it over the line to win the game 2-1."

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