Borussia Dortmund picked up a win against Bremen in the Bundesliga that was rather flattering despite its magnitude. SV Werder didn’t take advantage of their chances.
In the 3-0 win in front of 81,365 fans in Dortmund, Nico Schlotterbeck (11th) gave BVB the lead, Marcel Sabitzer (76th) and Serhou Guirassy (83rd) followed up.
Dortmund ended the first half of the season in second place with 36 points, having started the new year with a 3-3 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt. Bremen is twelfth with 17 points. The game against Hoffenheim had to be postponed due to weather.
Dortmund scores, Bremen the better team
The opening phase belonged to Bremen, who played cheekily. After a counterattack, Justin Nijnmah appeared half-right in the penalty area and shot from 13 meters. BVB goalkeeper Gregor Kobel was wide awake and deflected the ball to the side. A little later, a powerful shot from Marco Grüll just went over the crossbar.
But the goal fell on the other side. After a corner from Julian Ryerson, the entire Bremen defense and also goalkeeper Mio Backhaus didn’t look good and Schlotterbeck was able to head in almost unchallenged.
Nijnmah fails in front of Kobel
Werder didn’t let the deficit deter them and stuck to coach Horst Steffen’s match plan. After winning the ball and making quick transitions, Nijnmah ran freely towards Kobel, but couldn’t get the ball past the goalkeeper.
The Dortmund game remained erratic and pomadey, the lead did not bring any security into the game. There were repeated errors in the build-up of the game, but Bremen finished the transition opportunities and counterattacks poorly. After taking the lead, BVB achieved almost nothing on offense. Coach Niko Kovac had put Serhou Guirassy on the bench and called Fabio Silva into the starting line-up, but he too remained pale.
Borussia’s lead at the break was flattering, as Bremen was the better team in the first half. The Dortmund audience also saw it that way – there were whistles.
No improvement in the second half
At the beginning of the second half, BVB got into the game a little better. During a counterattack, Fabio Silva took on three opponents and passed the ball to Maximilian Beier, who missed Backhaus from a somewhat acute angle. Silva was then unable to convert the follow-up shot.
All in all, nothing had changed in the quality of Dortmund’s game – it remained average. At least the black and yellow team now did a better job of keeping Werder away from their own goal.
Sabitzer follows up
Kovac tried impulses from the bench. He brought on Guirassy and Jobe Bellingham for Beier and Carney Chukwuemeka, both of whom had remained pale. But that didn’t help either, the game sputtered along and took place mainly between the two penalty areas.
The 2-0 came out of the blue. BVB had made it to the Bremen 16s and Sabitzer then simply pulled away – 2-0. After a major bad pass from Amos Pieper during the build-up to the game, Guirassy also scored.
SV Werder had nothing left to add and had to accept the accusation of not taking advantage of their chances at the start.
Dortmund against St. Pauli, Bremen against Frankfurt
Dortmund welcomes FC St. Pauli on the next matchday on Saturday afternoon (3:30 p.m.). Bremen has to play against Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday evening (8:30 p.m.).