Now sixth
©IMAGO
Borussia Dortmund impressively prevented the dreaded Christmas crisis. BVB won the final eventful Bundesliga match of the year 3-1 (3-0) against VfL Wolfsburg and now enter the three-week winter break in sixth place in the table, just two points out of one place. in Champions. League.
In the event of a defeat, coach Nuri Şahin’s team would have fallen to eleventh place. This would have been the worst Christmas result since last season with BVB’s sainted Jürgen Klopp a decade ago. But goals from Donyell Malen (25th), Maximilian Beier (28th) and Julian Brandt (30th) in five minutes prevented that from happening. In the second half, the match threatened to change again after Denis Vavro made it 3-1 (58′) and a red card for Pascal Groß (62′). In the end, 28,917 spectators in the sold-out Volkswagen Arena saw Dortmund earn their first away victory of this Bundesliga season. And also a revenge for the elimination of the Cup in Wolfsburg two months earlier.
BVB coach Şahin reacted very strongly to December’s winless streak before kick-off. On Friday, his emotional locker room speech after the disappointing 1-1 draw against 1899 Hoffenheim (“Are you the winning type?”) was made public. On Sunday evening, he relied on an unconditional offensive orientation with two attackers (Beier, Guirassy), three attacking midfielders (Malen, Brandt, Gittens) and a single defender (Felix Nmecha) behind them.
The fact that VfL coach Ralph Hasenhüttl simultaneously moved away from his successful system of recent weeks and acted much more cautiously was a signal for both teams: Dortmund played with great courage and of domination, while Wolfsburg was inhibited. Brandt missed the visitors’ first big chance in the second minute. By the end of the first half, BVB had already scored three goals and missed three more chances before VfL even had its first scoring opportunity: Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel parried a Mattias Svanberg header from close range (35th).
Hasenhüttl brought on two new strikers at the break, giving the evening a more family-friendly touch. Because now Lukas Nmecha from Wolfsburg was playing against his brother Felix, who left from the Volkswagen club for 30 million euros to Borussia in 2023. The long-injured striker missed the first opportunity to bring VfL back in the 48th minute. Completely autonomous, Nmecha failed against Kobel. Later, the 26-year-old also received a red card for Groß when he forced the Dortmund international into an emergency save. Vavro’s next free kick was the perfect opportunity to make the score 2-3 (65th), shortly after the Slovak’s goal.
Wolfsburg now had four attackers on the pitch and were therefore significantly superior in the second half. What worked in BVB’s favor was that being outnumbered for almost half an hour sharpened the senses rather than created uncertainty. Brandt (65th) and Guirassy (69th) even missed good counter-attack opportunities to score a fourth goal.
