Everything as always at Borussia Dortmund. In their own stadium, in front of a constant 81,365 spectators, BVB conceded three points against Sportclub Freiburg in their sixth home game for the sixth time in a row. In the end it was 4-0 against Freiburg, who kept up the game for a long time. But so far no home win for BVB this season has resulted in a turnaround in the away misery. On the next matchday, however, Dortmund will play at home again – against league leaders Bayern Munich. In between, BVB still has to go to Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League.
At Dortmund, the problem children of the previous and current seasons scored to take a 2-0 half-time lead. Maximilian Beier, who replaced Serhou Guirassy up front who was suffering from flu, scored the opening goal after 19 minutes. He elegantly ran away from Nicolas Höfler, set in motion by a fine outside-the-foot pass from Ramy Bensebaini. Beier built on his double goal from the U21 international match against France. Felix Nmecha achieved the same thing 20 minutes later with a clever long-range shot. Nmecha, who has been either injured or out of form for a long time since his move from Wolfsburg in the summer of 2023, scored for the senior national team during the week to make it 1-0 against Hungary.
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Eintracht defeated Bremen and are now second in the table. Stuttgart also wins at home – Hoffenheim and Leipzig play the wildest game. The most important thing for match day.
In between, Vincenzo Grifo shot goalkeeper Gregor Kobel and Lucas Höler spectacularly hit the crossbar seconds later and then failed to sink the rebound. The chance to equalize and make a comeback for the sports club: missed. Overall, Freiburg was too sloppy in building up the game to embarrass BVB more often. After the game, captain Christian Günter could only take it with humor: “There is something about this stadium for us that cannot be explained.” Coach Julian Schuster had decided to run high and press Dortmund. But this time BVB proved to be more stress-resistant than last.
Freiburg received two dismissals
The game was decided in the 63rd minute when Freiburg’s Patrick Osterhage tried to correct a catastrophic bad pass from former Dortmund player Matthias Ginter and in the process ran Marcel Sabitzer off his feet. Barely five minutes earlier, Osterhage had already received a yellow card for a foul on Julian Ryerson. Referee Felix Brych had no choice but to send Osterhage off the pitch with a yellow-red card. To make matters worse from Freiburg’s perspective, Dortmund’s captain Julian Brandt then increased the score to 3-0 with the free kick. Brandt commented on his first goal of the season with a smile: “We had time with the national team to practice free kicks.” A little later, Pascal Groß, who was only substituted that afternoon, put on a 4-0 lead for Jamie Gittens. The young Englishman shot the ball unstoppably into the far corner of the goal.
At the last minute and with the game already decided, substitute Junior Adamu committed a particularly unnecessary attack on Dortmund’s Waldemar Anton. After a quick check on the video evidence monitor, Brych decimated SC Freiburg to just nine players with a straight red card. Absurd, given what is largely a remarkably fair game.
Freiburg coach Julian Schuster continued the black Freiburg series of his predecessor Christian Streich. The sports club, whose fans have been friends with BVB’s supporters since the 1990s, has managed just one draw in its 17 most recent games in Dortmund – with 16 defeats. It took a lot of friendship in the guest block to remain in a surprisingly good mood at the end.
Brandt, who once again replaced the suspended Emre Can as captain, gave a sober assessment: “We played well for over 90 minutes today. However, we were lucky once when Gregor Kobel saved us.” However, the discrepancy between home and away appearances also bothered the playmaker: “Since I’ve been here in Dortmund, it’s always been easier at home than away. It’s clear: This is a special place here.” But things have to finally get better away from home. The now 18 home points in the Bundesliga are offset by a single one away from home.
