The situation at Borussia Dortmund was already tense before the game. Nuri Sahin’s team is now dramatically eliminated from the DFB Cup against VfL Wolfsburg. BVB professional Pascal Groß makes no excuses.
Borussia Dortmund’s crisis has worsened further. After recent disappointments in the Bundesliga and Champions League, BVB was also knocked out of the DFB Cup in the second round. The 0-1 (0-0, 0-0) defeat after extra time at VfL Wolfsburg further increases the pressure on the new Dortmund coach Nuri Sahin.
Jonas Wind only scored the decisive goal in the 117th minute. Bitter results, many injuries, no development in terms of play: a lot is coming together at the moment for last season’s Champions League finalists.
“The goal means a lot to me because it was very important. We are still in the cup. It was a good goal. In the end we had more energy than Dortmund and that’s why I think we deserved to go through,” Wolfsburg’s cup hero Wind told ARD after the game. “We fought, it was a game of equals. It is extremely bitter to concede a goal like that after 117 minutes,” emphasized Dortmund’s Pascal Groß and added. “We have personnel problems, you can see that, but for me these are no excuses. We had our moments. I’m not looking for excuses, there was more to it today.”
These days, Sahin is experiencing the rigors of being a professional coach unfiltered. Because two right-backs and two central defenders were missing, Sahin had to withdraw the two national players Emre Can and Pascal Groß from midfield to the defense in Wolfsburg. In addition to the ailing Marcel Sabitzer, there were only talents between the ages of 18 and 21 on the bench.
Before the season, Dortmund consciously decided to have a small squad that was very sparsely staffed, especially in defense. This is now taking revenge. Nevertheless, Sahin was once again very confident in his path: “If you become the coach of Borussia Dortmund, then everything will be valued twice or triple – even in the spotlight. I have no problem with that at all,” said the 36-year-old on ARD.
Great opportunity for Beier
The evening in front of 24,806 spectators could have been much more relaxed for the BVB coach if Maximilian Beier had scored his first goal for Borussia in the 14th minute. After a beautiful through pass from Nico Schlotterbeck, the 30 million euro purchase from 1899 Hoffenheim ran towards the Wolfsburg goal alone, but only shot the ball onto the post.
Afterwards it became clear, as it did against Bayern Munich or Bayer Leverkusen: getting in the way of a better-manned opponent is what the Wolfsburg team can do best this season. And so until the break they had even more dangerous actions than BVB thanks to Patrick Wimmer (20th) and Mohammed Amoura (32nd).
After the break, Dortmund initially came out of the locker room better. In the 56th minute, however, they were lucky that former Wolfsburg player Felix Nmecha only saw a yellow card and not a red card for his foul on Wimmer. Instead of Nmecha, the Austrian had to leave the field injured a little later (70th). He was unable to continue playing because of his leg wound. BVB’s most dominant phase also occurred at exactly this time after the foul. Goalkeeper Kamil Grabara skillfully deflected a header from Guirassy over the crossbar (65th). A shot from Gittens was blocked at the last moment (68th).
Wolfsburg’s strong, but playfully limited team didn’t turn up the heat again until the 80th minute. Jonas Wind (86th) had VfL’s best chance of the second half. Tiago Tomas (93′) hit the crossbar at the start of extra time. Both strikers had only recently been substituted, which also showed that Wolfsburg was able to add significantly more from the bench on this long evening than the weakened BVB – and caused the Dortmund Cup to be eliminated in extra time due to wind.
rc/dpa
