Borussia Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski (C) celebrates his goal with teammates during their Champions League encounter against Ajax Amsterdam in Amsterdam on Wednesday.Photo: AFP

Borussia Dortmund deserve credit for having dominated the Champions League's so-called 'Group of Death', according to director of sport Michael Zorc after his team hammered Ajax 4-1 in Amsterdam.
The German champions booked their place in the last 16 on Wednesday with some clinical finishing and impressive counter-attacking football as Germany stars Marco Reus and Mario Goetze shone and Poland's Robert Lewandowski scored twice.
Having been drawn with Real Madrid, Ajax and Manchester City in Group D, Dortmund are now three points clear at the top of the table ahead of their final pool game at home to Manchester City in a fortnight.
But Zorc says his team deserve all the credit they have earned after beating Real at home, then drawing away in both Madrid and Manchester while claiming victory over the Dutch both home and now away during their campaign.
"You simply have to give the team a lot of praise for the way they marched through a difficult group, we didn't expect that" said Zorc as Dortmund reached the knock-out phase for the first time since 2003.
Incredibly, Dortmund had just five shots on target over the 90 minutes at the Amsterdam Arena, but scored from four of them and gave a lesson in counter-attacking football with just 33 per cent ball possession.
"I think we had an average of around 70 per cent possession, but we gave bad goals away," admitted Ajax coach Frank De Boer.
“We certainly could have avoided three of them. That's the hardest part to take about this defeat."