Mats Hummels stretched his body, clenched his fists, and let out a scream as if he had just won a really big football game. Obviously, after the 2-0 (1-0) win against 1. FC Köln, the Borussia Dortmund defender was very relieved to have won one of those everyday duels with which the team had so often struggled in recent years.
Marco Rose expressed a “big compliment” to his players who, despite many failures and several minor injuries, managed to “collect points in these difficult situations and advance in the cup”. At the same time, however, Dortmund’s coach admitted: “With everything that has happened to the ball, you have to say that FC were the better team.” Only in the end did Cologne lack the luck and efficiency to make more of the flood of best opportunities .
Mark Uth even scored an early goal that didn’t count because the ball had bounced on his forearm just before he was finished (16th). After a mistake in the build-up of the game by Dortmund defender Marin Pongracic, Ondrej Duda dared a long-range shot from 45 meters, which Gregor Kobel, who was well in front of his goal, only maneuvered next to the goal with a risky rescue act (20th). And in the quarter of an hour after the break, BVB was almost overrun.
“Satisfied except for the result”
His team lost “because Dortmund scored two goals and we didn’t,” said Cologne captain Jonas Hector. It is curious that Dortmund did not concede a goal for the first time in this Bundesliga season, but this was more due to Cologne’s weakness in the end than to their own stability. Anthony Modeste alone had five promising opportunities (49th, 51st, 62nd, 68th, 86th), and Uth (55th, 57th) and Sebastian Andersson (66th) could have steered the game in a different direction . “Except for the result, I’m satisfied with a lot,” said FC coach Steffen Baumgart, “a lot of what we set out to do worked out.”
Since the 1: 5 against VfB Stuttgart last December, as a result of which coach Lucien Favre was sacked, no guest in Dortmund has had more chances than FC. At some point Rose switched to a back four and switched strikers Stefan Tigges and Donyell Malen to revive the completely flagged offensive game. After that there were at least a few counter opportunities, but most of them were played improperly to the end.
Dortmund won because they scored goals in favorable moments. They made it 1-0 after a long ball, at the end of a very simple play Thorgan Hazard hit with his head (40th). And in the midst of Cologne’s storm of chances after the break, Tigges headed a corner from Julian Brandt to 2-0 into the goal (62nd).
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In building up the game, however, the Dortmund team had massive problems. Again and again Rose tried to correct the erratic attempts of his team, but BVB didn’t really get any better. Erling Haaland was also missing. Again and again there were moments of change against the courageous Cologne, in which passes were possible in exactly those rooms in which Haaland moves. But the strikers on the pitch did not take advantage of these opportunities. Marco Reus is not a player who can be played at the level of the opposing defenders, Hazard and Brandt are more likely to meet the passer at such moments than to look for the direct route to the goal. Malen has still not really made it to Dortmund, and Tigges scored his first Bundesliga goal, but he is not yet a striker who can make a top team better in the Bundesliga.
So BVB remains a building site, although Rose and his players can be proud of winning a surprising number of these games in which they do not act like a top team. BVB has now won eight out of ten games in the Bundesliga and is only one point behind FC Bayern. This consistency is a real step forward compared to previous years.
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