Dortmund Match recap: Battle of the Borrusia’s ends in Dortmunds favor

4th place for BVB! We played league leading Borussia Monchengldbach at home today and won 1-0 thanks to a goal from Marco Reus. With a litany of missing players due to injury and suspension, BVB did a good job getting the win in a crucial time for the club. Our next game is against Inter Milan away.Then to the derby vs Schalke.

The first half was nothing short of a complete mess for both sides. BVB were playing with a bad mindset, letting BMG play their way. This may be fine if we are away in a big game, but we were playing at home. For all the bad choices BVB pulled off in the first half, we did manage good chances including a goal that was called off. The goal, scored by Hazard was just barley off and the human eye never would have caught it. But VAR managed to find the slightest space and made the call. The half ended 0-0 with neither team completely in control.

The second half was more lively. Both teams came at each other with quite a few chances. Marco Reus broke the deadlock in the 58th minute with a great shot past Sommer. Both Sommer and Burki both had to do a lot of work this half. Shortly after the Reus goal Burki got lucky not getting called from a penalty after a tackle in the box. It would not have been Burkis fault however as Hummels is the one who put Burki in that situation. However since our goal was pretty unfairly called off I don’t empathize too much with BMG fans. Things got much tougher for BVB in the 71st minute as Burki was forced to leave the game with an injury. He walked off on his own so hopefully he is OK. Hitz came on and played quite well with a nice save of his own soon after coming on. We did score a second goal in the 83’, a nice shot from Brandt, but it was called off for Reus being offside. So our entire front three put the ball in the net but only Reus scored. Despite some late Gladbach corners, the final score ended 1-0.

While we did finally win a game, we still did not look great out there. In the first half we looked out of ideas pretty early. Generally speaking this game did not feel much different then any of our 2-2 ties before. Reus finally started to look himself this game, with some really great runs and a goal to boot. Witsel and Weigl both held the midfield well and they honestly didn’t look awful playing alongside Delaney. Akanji is a liability and needs to be removed from the starting lineup. There is no way Balerdi or Morey aren’t better options then him the way he is playing. Peak Akanji was the one of, if not, the best CB in the league last season. He just hasn’t looked that way since. The most confusing part is its generally his decision making ,not pace or power that’s getting him into trouble.

So a win is a win. How did you feel about the game today?