Match Ratings: A Successful (Easter Egg) Hunt for Borussia Dortmund

In what was a delightfully beautiful Easter Saturday, Borussia Dortmund left fans simply buzzing where goals rained like April showers. We won’t even pretend that the ratings below are not influenced by the state of euphoria we will, doubtless, be in for days to come.

Starting XI

Gregor Kobel

Sarah: 9

What a force. A wall. A stellar performance from San Kobel. With so many excellent saves, it was unfortunate he walked away without a clean sheet.

Sean: 7

Kobel only made three saves, but one was a massive diving effort where he pushed the ball over the bar on a long shot.

Tom Rothe

Sarah: 8

Everyone was super excited to see this kid make his Bundesliga debut and what a debut it was...one for the BVB history books. His opening goal was no fluke as his certainty time on the pitch increased throughout the match.

Sean: 1000

BVB legend, the greatest of all time, haters eat your hearts out.

Manuel Akanji

Sarah: 7.5

I am a major Akanji stan and absolutely love it when he not only delivers a fine performance, but partakes in the goal scoring action. His last two Bundesliga goals are bookends against Wolfsburg. King shit indeed.

Sean: 8

Dan-Axel Zagadou

Sarah: 7

In his (surprise) return to the starting XI, Zagadou looked strong and confident on the ball...just what you want in a defender.

Sean: 6

Emre Can

Sarah: 8

He’s officially restored himself to my good graces (ok, let’s be real, he never actually left them). He was a beast on defense and a goal too? #MasterClass #CANdyMan

Sean: 8

Axel Witsel

Sarah: 7

We’ve seen him score before (kinda recently too!) but it still surprises me when he nets one and this happening so quickly on the heels of Rothe’s opening goal. We either love him or hate him and today, he was a man in charge serving us with a powerful display.

Sean: 7.5

I always love me a Witsel goal and celly.

Jude Bellingham

Sarah: 6.5

With all the goal scoring action taking place, Jude was relatively quiet (by his standards) but his contributions helped secure the dub.

Sean: 5

Very strange that in a game full of strong performances, Jude looked the most lackluster.

Marius Wolf

Sarah: 6.5

An assist to Can’s goal was probably the highlight for Wolf today as he was pretty muted for a good portion of the match.

Sean: 6

The only Wolf that played remotely well today.

Marco Reus

Sarah: 8

He was incredibly active on the pitch with a role in two of six goals and almost wound up on the score sheet himself.

Sean: 8

Brilliant performance from the captain. For someone who many consider completely washed up, he’s still racking up the goals and assists.

Julian Brandt

Sarah: 8

Two fine assists from Brandt would have been enough, but he didn’t stop there as his play throughout was a source of frustration for the Wolfsburg defense.

Sean: 8

Erling Haaland

Sarah: 8.5

AT LAST! The drought is over in the form of a brace!

Sean: 7

Turns out he can score after all!

Substitutions

Youssoufa Moukoko, Marin Pongračić, Reinier Jesus, Jamie Jermaine Bynoe-Gittens, Lion Semić

N/R

The win was secured so bringing in subs was really to rest the regulars and allow some game time to the newbies.

Overall

Sarah: 8

I simply cannot say enough glowing things about the collective performance of the squad today. They looked fluid, confident, positive and consistent. Regardless of next week’s outcome, this is the exact performance the team needed heading into the Bayern match if there is to be any chance of victory. I absolutely love when goals are shared amongst the squad in a high scoring game. It instantly transports me to the BRAGER match of 2014. Think about it...how boring is it when Lewy scores all the goals. Talk about snoozefest. Instead, having 5 different goal scorers demonstrates that EVERY player on the BVB side was engaged and involved and that’s the exact type of cohesive unity to strive for.

Sean: 7

My biggest takeaway from this match is that Wolfsburg and Koen Casteels played really, really badly. It’s no wonder they’ve been fighting relegation almost all season. Overall, while I’m happy that BVB won by such a wide margin, I’m holding out to see how this team plays against Bayern before I give them too much praise. We’ve seen them beat small teams only to lose the next week to bigger opponents time and time again.