EThere was a deep feeling of relief in the fervent “Jaaaaa” that escaped the approximately 60,000 Dortmunders when they had brought this precious success to the finish line. BVB won 2-1 (0-0) against VfB Stuttgart with a late winner by Marco Reus, reduced the gap to league leaders Bayern Munich to one point and increased their lead over rivals such as RB Leipzig or VfL Wolfsburg. Shortly after the final whistle, the south stand sang the classic “Take off Bayern’s lederhosen”, because the next home game in two weeks’ time will be a direct duel against Munich in Dortmund. But the performance with which BVB won this game should not instill much fear in Bayern. In terms of football, the Dortmund team is making slow progress.
“We didn’t shine,” admitted Mats Hummels, but at the same time the chief of defense emphasized: “We accepted it.” The Dortmunders will have to be content with this fall. For example, the strong performance by Donyell Malen, who not only scored his first Bundesliga goal, was pleasing. The Dutchman was committed and present like in hardly any game before, won duels, came to a conclusion. “That was a benchmark for Donny in many areas today,” said coach Marco Rose. “He didn’t wait for moments today, he worked for them.”
In the first third of the season, Malen hadn’t been able to meet the expectations placed on him. He looked nervous and sometimes physically overwhelmed. As a replacement for the still injured Erling Haaland, he was mostly a disappointment. Now Malen was finally a little lucky that his shot was deflected by Hiroki Ito from Stuttgart so that it could no longer be held by Stuttgart goalkeeper Florian Müller (55th).
In the 80th minute, Malen could even have become the hero of the day when he put a ball just wide of the post. Because the game was on the brink. Roberto Massimo had missed the ball after the otherwise strong Manuel Akanji Hummels with a nice hook and pushed the ball to 1-1 into the long corner of the goal (63.). Hummels meant such moments when he said: “In between we had this phase again where we had too many easy ball losses.”
All in all, it was an extremely arduous game for the Dortmund team, who worked hard, but at the moment simply don’t have the quality to create a lot of clear goal chances against a team that is fundamentally inferior in terms of football. Julian Brand and Marco Reus played well, more often than recently BVB combined through the narrow spaces of the midfield. Too many balls were lost here, especially in the first half. Rose nevertheless praised his team for an overall “good performance against a difficult opponent.”
Got Dortmund on track: Donyell Malen scored 1-0.
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Image: EPA
BVB had 72 percent ball possession in the first half, at the end it was 64 percent. But the top team from the district was unable to achieve a longer phase of dominance, and opportunities were rare. A Reus free-kick (7th) and a shot by Thorgan Hazard (38th) flew just wide of the goal, and Malen headed wide early on from a good position (13th). In addition, the Stuttgart goalkeeper Florian Müller directed Akanji’s long-range shot to the crossbar (67th). The game threatened to tip over in favor of the Stuttgarter, because VfB also repeatedly earned moments in which hits were possible. “I am clearly convinced that we deserved at least one point,” said sports director Sven Mislintat.
However, the Stuttgart had to be accused of having acted a little too carelessly in the final phase. In the 85th minute, BVB was able to counter after a corner from the Swabians, Müller fended off Hazard’s first attempt at the end, and Reus sank the margin into the goal. The stadium was raging, but Borussia Dortmund remains a strange club: The points account is full, they have won all Bundesliga games in front of their home crowd, the experience value of this final phase with the late redemption goal was enormous for the Dortmund audience. Hummels finally spoke of “many steps in the right direction” and took stock of the season so far: “Because we have had a lot of personnel problems, that’s okay so far.” But top football looks different.
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