Away coup in Munich, home defeat against Stuttgart – in Dortmund the disillusionment is back just a week after the statement victory at FC Bayern. With the 0-1 (0-0) on Saturday, coach Edin Terzic’s team suffered their third defeat against VfB this season and suffered a bitter setback in the fight for Champions League qualification.
After Serhou Guirassy conceded a goal (64th) in front of 81,365 spectators, BVB slipped to fifth place. That doesn’t give much encouragement for the quarter-final first leg in the European premier class on Wednesday at Atlético Madrid.
On the other hand, the guests took another big step towards the Champions League. Not least thanks to the fifth Bundesliga away win in a row (club record), the lead between third in the table and fifth is already seven points. The Swabians drew level with FC Bayern on points.
There was a great atmosphere before kick-off. The fans celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Dortmund stadium with an impressive stadium choreography, a performance by the Dortmund Philharmonic and numerous other activities.
Dortmund more active
A little later there was nothing comparable to see on the pitch. Both teams treated each other with a lot of respect and shied away from taking risks. Only a long-range shot by BVB captain Emre Can, which was parried by VfB keeper Alexander Nübel, was there a danger of scoring (14th).
Compared to the two poor performances against VfB so far this season, BVB was significantly more active this time. Nevertheless, for a long time there was a lack of brilliant ideas to shake the stable Stuttgart defense. The visitors’ wait-and-see tactics were almost rewarded early on: after Chris Führig’s cross, striker Guirassy was close to making it 1-0 with his header, but didn’t hit the ball properly (25′).
Serhou Guirassy scores the decisive goal for VfB Stuttgart. : Image: AP
However, Dortmund’s biggest chance to date came when Mats Hummels fed the fast Karim Adeyemi (31′). But the attacker, who had recently improved his form, failed to score against Nübel.
However, the spectators did not see a lively top game with many goal area scenes until half time. Until then, the duel between the table neighbors lived on tactics and fight, rather than on playful finesse.
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Even after the restart, restraint prevailed. Although BVB increased the pressure on the opponent’s goal, despite all their commitment, they couldn’t find any gaps. More and more both teams seemed to be waiting for the other to make a game-winning mistake.
At least for VfB, this approach paid off. Coach Sebastian Hoeneß’s team used a bad pass from Can to launch an exemplary counterattack and skilfully outplayed the previously stable BVB defense. Once again we could rely on striker Guirassy, who shot coldly after a low cross from Jamie Leweling. With his 24th goal of the season, Guirassy equalized Mario Gomez’s previous VfB record from the 2008/2009 season.
This deficit had an effect on Dortmund. They tried to turn the game around with furious attacks. That could have been successful if Nico Schlotterbeck hadn’t shot the ball over the goal from three meters (80′).
