The hunt goes on: Borussia Dortmund is not letting up in the “shooting competition” for the championship title. BVB beat Borussia Mönchengladbach, which was very weak for 45 minutes, 5-2 (4-0) in the supposed top game and gave a clear answer to FC Bayern’s big win against Schalke 04 a few hours earlier.
Dortmund is just one point behind Munich – but without a blunder from their rivals, the ninth championship in the club’s history will not come to fruition.
In any case, the shape is generally correct. Donyell Malen (5th), Jude Bellingham (18th, penalty kick) and Sebastien Haller (20th/34th) picked the guests apart in front of 81,365 spectators with almost no resistance. The Gladbach fans let their frustration out at half-time: The pressure on coach Daniel Farke increases, even when Ramy Bensebaini took a penalty (75th) and substitute captain Lars Stindl (86th) shortened the deficit thanks to an inexplicably weak Dortmund end. Gio Reyna (90 + 5) used a goalkeeper error for the fifth BVB goal.
BVB’s third-to-last hope of a Bayern mistake was dashed in the afternoon, and the golden book didn’t help either. The mayor had promised Schalke an entry without any major risk. So it was all about staying tuned, anyway coach Edin Terzic had claimed three victories: The rest might then come about by itself.
Gladbach want to bring a disappointing season to a decent end, but without the strike duo Alassane Plea (suspended) and Marcus Thuram (bench after a torn muscle) and the injured goalkeeper Jonas Omlin, who was absent due to a muscular problem, it will be even more difficult. Jan Olschowsky helplessly opposed the BVB onslaught – unlike the surprising 4:2 in the first leg.
He was beaten after just a few minutes: Haller’s blocked shot became the perfect template for Mal, who was given his ninth goal of the season. Bensebaini, who will probably come from Dortmund next season, almost equalized (12′) for guests who were trembling from the start. But that’s it for now.
Because when Florian Neuhaus fouled Haller in the penalty area, everything looked like a leisurely BVB evening. Bellingham shot the ball under Olschowsky, who was still struggling desperately in the jump. After Haller’s “no-look goal” to make it 3-0, some Gladbachers would have wished for the final whistle – but that was 71 minutes away, and after the 4-0 still 58. “We want to see you fight” and “We have fed up,” shouted thousands of fans in the guest block.
It didn’t get much better. BVB went down two gears and still easily retained control of a game that was already decided. Bellingham (56th), Karim Adeyemi (60th) and Julian Brandt (68th) mercifully left it at the intermediate score, while Gladbach was hardly able to free itself from the constant pressure over a few stops.
On the other hand, Terzic was able to give top performers like Mats Hummels or Malen some rest. After that, however, Dortmund seemed to have switched off a bit internally and let the opponent use cosmetic results completely unnecessarily.
Borussia Dortmund – Borussia Mönchengladbach: The voices of the game
Edin Terzic (Borussia Dortmund coach): “We showed today that we’ll believe in it to the end and we’ll chase everything to the end. We still have two games left. After that we’ll see what it was enough for. Bayern have to step on the gas, we’ll give it a go.”
Daniel Farke (Borussia Monchengladbach coach): “We were indisciplined and didn’t stick to the match plan at all. You can’t survive like that in Dortmund. We deservedly lost so badly because of the first half. We really wanted to win the second half, and the boys did that, but we did are very dissatisfied with the first one.”
Borussia Dortmund – Borussia Mönchengladbach: The data for the game
