Match Ratings: Borussia Dortmund’s Super Subs Deliver Smash and Grab 3-1 Win Against Freiburg

It’s always nice to get your three points on the Friday night and have the rest of the weekend to enjoy the football without any stress. An hour through Friday’s game against Freiburg, it didn’t look like it would be such a pleasant weekend, as Borussia Dortmund were trailing 1-0, and didn’t look like they had it in them to make a comeback... And then that’s exactly what they did.

In the smashiest of smash and grab wins, BVB mounted their comeback with a little over ten minutes left in the game, requiring a glaring error from Freiburg’s goalkeeper, Mark Flekken, to get things going. They ended up running out 3-1 winners, with goals from substitutes Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Youssoufa Moukoko, and Marius Wolf, despite not deserving anything from the game at all. But who are we to complain? A win’s a win!

Here’s our ratings from Friday’s 3-1 victory to maintain their perfect start to the season.

Starting XI

Gregor Kobel

Paul: 6

Anders: 6

Kinda hard to rate this one. Kobel didn’t have much to do even though Freiburg were in control for long streches of the game. Played well together with our backline though, and had some decent saves.

Yash: 6.5

Mats Hummels

Paul: 5

Anders: 5

Didn’t look great at the goal, and was misplaced on more than one occasion. Maybe it’s really the end of an era?

Yash: 5.5

Nico Schlotterbeck

Paul: 6

Anders: 6

Delivered a solid performance against his former team, even though he did play with a bit of frustration at times. Still our best defender on the day (apart from a certain substitute).

Yash: 7

Won the most tackles and duels and kept a respectable pass completion rate. Solid, but not outstanding.

Thomas Meunier

Paul: 5

Came off at half time for Marius Wolf. I’m not sure he necessarily did anything wrong, but BVB needed a little more offense down that right-hand side, so Meunier had to make way.

Anders: 5

Yash: 6

Raphael Guerreiro

Paul: 5

Anders: 5

Once again not a very good performance for our Portuguese talisman. Had only a couple of great combinations and he didn’t really seem a threat to Freiburg through the entire match.

Yash: 5.5

Jude Bellingham

Paul: 5

The midfield was totally swamped all game long. Bellingham and Dahoud definitely needed more help, though I don’t think Bellingham helped things at times.

Anders: 6

Yash: 5

Mahmoud Dahoud

Paul: 5

It was just a rough night for both Bellingham and Dahoud. Some of it was their fault, some of it wasn’t. But they were up against it all game long.

Anders: 6

Yash: 7

Mo was often hung out to dry by the unusually-poor Bellingham, and did a good job of holding the midfield together even when he was outnumbered. At times, he looked like the only player playing with any sort of desire.

Marco Reus

Paul: 6

Anders 5

Yash: 6.75

Not particularly visible and floated in and out of the game, but no BVB player created more chances than him. He also won the second-most tackles. A low-key but surprisingly good performance, and he could have had an assist on another day.

Thorgan Hazard

Paul: 3

Hazard was pretty poor in the first half. Some duff touches and a needless foul here and there. It didn’t make a good case for keeping him around, that’s for sure.

Anders: 3

Yash: 2

If he starts ahead of Brandt again, I will riot.

Donyell Malen

Paul: 3

I’m not 100% certain that he touched the ball in open play, but at least Malen had the good grace to be invisible, unlike Hazard who made an effort to be actively bad.

Anders: 3

Yash: 3

Second invisible performance in a row.

Anthony Modeste

Paul: 5

He wasn’t really up to much all game long, but given the circumstances I’m reluctant to be overly critical. He played 90 minutes less than a week after joining Dortmund. Modeste and his new teammates haven’t had enough time to figure each other out just yet.

Anders: 4

Modeste wasn’t much involved, and it’s honestly hard to rate him solely on his first game for his new team.

Yash: 4

Unsurprisingly struggled to adapt to the new system. Missed a good chance earlier on, and contributed nothing of note otherwise. Will be really important when he does get used to the team.

Substitutes

Marius Wolf

Paul: 7

Wolf brought a little more energy on that right flank. Before his goal, I still would have given him credit for giving BVB more energy going forward, but since he scored a lovely effort too? Good job!

Anders: 7

My personal Man of the Match. Wolf ran, dribbled and was a lot more proactive than Meunier in attack (while also tracking back in defense). He scored a lovely goal to cap off a very impressive performance! Maybe he’s not only a rotational piece?

Yash: 8

Wolf Unleashed.

Jamie Bynoe-Gittens

Paul: 7

I mean, he scored a banger... But in all seriousness, he looked very lively when he came on, and his silly goal and then nice little run is what snatched this game back from the brink for BVB.

Anders: 6

If we can somehow unlock this guys full potential, he’ll surely be a world class player. Very proactive on the ball. Kind of a silly goal, but you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!

Yash: 6.5

Benefited from a Flekken howler and some really slack defending at the edge of the Freiburg box, but looked energetic and direct. Missed an enormous chance.

Youssoufa Moukoko

Paul: 7

Lovely finish to complete the unlikely comeback.

Anders: 7

Yash: 8.5

MotM performance. Came on with very little of the game remaining, and immediately looked a threat. Involved in all 3 goals.

Julian Brandt

Paul: 6

I think all four of the substitutes looked pretty lively. Brandt didn’t have quite as much of a say in the comeback as the other three, but his touch to assist Moukoko was nice, and I thought he looked solid otherwise.

Anders: 6

Yash: 7.25

Assist aside, adding him to the midfield gave us some real dynamism and he looked a much-needed breath of fresh air. Probably should have started, and definitely should have come on earlier.

Overall

Paul: 6

This was not a particularly good performance (it was definitively poor for the majority of the game), but Terzic’s substitutes did come good. Freiburg are a really tough team, so a 3-1 away win is nothing to sniff at!

Anders: 6

We didn’t really play football for around 65 minutes, but a win against Freiburg is still very good. We need to be a lot better in open play though, because currently we don’t play as good as a second place finish in the league.

Yash: 5

Freiburg will probably be wondering how they managed to throw this one away. Dortmund's performance was largely insipid, disjointed, and lacking in desire, and the 3-1 scoreline flatters us hugely. I'm disappointed in Terzić’s substitutions; yes, we won because of substitute intervention, but I think he shouldn't have been so hesitant to shuffle the pack. If he had made the subs earlier, maybe they would have had more time to influence the game and we wouldn't have needed to rely on a freak occurrence to draw level.

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