Borussia Dortmund have also won their eighth consecutive competitive game in 2023. On matchday 21 of the Bundesliga, BVB won 4-1 (2-0) at home against Hertha BSC. Dortmund moves up to second place in the table and is level on points with leaders FC Bayern Munich.
BVB took the lead through Karim Adeyemi (27th). Four minutes later, Donyell Malen scored to make it 2-0 – it was the Dutchman’s first goal of the season. A few seconds after the break, Hertha shortened the lead with Lucas Tousart (46′). Dortmund’s captain Marco Reus made the decision with a directly converted free kick (76th). In the final minute, Julian Brandt made it 4:1.
Adeyemi injured himself while assisting to make it 2-0 and then had to be substituted.
After two minutes of play, the game had to be interrupted for several minutes because the Hertha fans set off pyrotechnics and clouded the view of the field. They presented a banner with the inscription: “Your material bans fizzle out in smoke and mirrors”.
Mats Hummels played his 454th game for BVB, overtaking Roman Weidenfeller and is now the second-most-capped player for Dortmund. Only Michael Zorc is ahead of him (572 games).
BVB meets RB Leipzig in the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup. That was the result of the draw on Sunday evening. The round of eight takes place on April 4th and 5th.
BVB – Hertha BSC: The analysis
Not a good start for BVB, who lacked the pass shafts when in possession and made too many inaccuracies. The guests acted with a 5-3-2 against the ball, disciplined the center and kept the gaps between the teams small. That was enough to effectively keep Borussia away from the Berlin box.
But the Herthan bulwark was not up to par twice in a row, which Dortmund exploited twice against an open and slightly advanced formation thanks to precise attacks. However, the reaction of the capital city to the 0:2 deficit was good, as they quickly played into the lead when in possession of the ball and scored several goals within a few minutes against Dortmund who were not aggressive enough – but all of them were too harmless.
That only changed shortly after the start of the second half, after a counterattack, Hertha scored the goal – because Dortmund defended sleepily. As a result, the guests are the better team. Berlin defended high, got a lot of second balls and showed a good switching game, which led to some precarious, but again not very high-quality situations. Dortmund almost only reacted in this phase and could no longer find their way into the combination game.
Things improved afterwards and BVB came back towards the Berlin penalty area due to a more aggressive duel and quicker passes, but the hosts were unable to create any clear opportunities. It helped that Reus converted a direct free kick to decide. Hertha didn’t give up after that and embarrassed BVB a few times, but in the end the guests were simply too harmless in front of goal to take a point with them.
Adeyemi has now scored in each of his four past competitive games – previously the Dortmund new signing had only scored one goal.
Hertha has now lost eight of the last nine duels with BVB.
Hertha have recently lost six games in a row away from home – the last time that happened was in 2016/17 (9 at that time).
The star of the game: Karim Adeyemi (BVB)
Played only 31 minutes, but was involved in the decisive actions during this time. Got spot on at the opening goal and finished nicely with a heel. He also prepared the 2-0 well – although he had briefly touched his thigh beforehand. Adeyemi is likely to be absent from Dortmund for a while.
The flop of the match: Jessic Ngankam (Hertha BSC)
Didn’t play too bad a game, but was rather unlucky in his actions and was hardly able to assert himself properly. He only won 20 percent of his 22 duels.
The referee: Harm Osmers
Had no problems in his 88th Bundesliga game and was also right about the personal penalties.
