Borussia Dortmund Narrowly Edge Out Werder Bremen

It was white knuckle time for Borussia Dortmund supporters, despite Werder Bremen going down to ten men. However, BVB took all three points away from home winning 2-1.

The day started off well enough as the newly appointed striker, out of necessity, Andre Schurrle notched his first Bundesliga goal of the season before the five minute had ticked away. Marco Rues banked a pass off an oncoming Werder Bremen player to Schurrle who seemed to have perfectly read the intention. He tiptoed around the keeper to easily slot on the shot, putting Borussia Dortmund up 1-0.

For the next ten or fifteen minutes, Borussia Dortmund was the class of the match. Their slick cutting passing opened Werder Bremen up on countless occasions and if it wasn’t for some wonderful saves by Jaroslav Drobny, Schurrle could have had another goal or two in the early going. However, a nice easy match wasn’t to be as Bremen recovered from their slow start to really put pressure on Borussia Dortmund.

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Be it from sloppy passing by the BVB midfield, or just swift counter attacking, Werder Bremen was able to create some moves into the attacking third. They failed to really threaten the Borussia Dortmund goal, outside of a shot from a narrow-angle that Roman Weidenfeller parried to the side.

Then about halfway through the first half, events conspired in Borussia Dortmund’s favor and it looked like a blowout might be on our hands. First was that the most productive Werder Bremen player, Serge Gnabry had to come off with an apparent injury and the next was a very clumsy challenge by Drobny. Once again Rues had found himself in on goal and thirty yards out or so Drobny had no other option but to make a challenge. Safe to say that isn’t the lumbering goal keeper’s strength as he put all the studs of one boot into the leg of Rues. Moments later Drobny was sent off and Werder Bremen were down to ten men.

To their credit, Werder Bremen didn’t fold and fought back into the match. They sat deep and look to counter on the break and early in the second half that is just what happened. In a flash, Fin Bartels nut-megged Mattias Ginter and outran Sokratis setting up an easy finish to level the score at 1-1.

At this point, Borussia Dortmund fans had to be worried. The chances were still available, but the goal came far too easily reminding many of the past struggles of the backline, particularly the dangers of playing so highly up the pitch. Sokratis simply didn’t have the pace to catch up and with Bartels able to position himself in the center of the goal Weidenfeller had no hope to make a save.

The second half insertion of Raphael Guerreiro and Ousmane Dembele injected Borussia Dortmund with a bit of energy and attacking adventure. Eventually, a corner was won and with the ball bouncing around in the box, a deflection perfectly found Lukasz Piszczek totally unmarked at the back post and a simple dink into the net put the score at 2-1.

Borussia Dortmund didn’t let their fans off the hook just yet though as the final minutes, Werder Bremen kept pumping the ball into the box attempting to create whatever they could. On the other end, BVB let slip chance after chance without capitalizing, leading both Thomas Tuchel and Weidenfeller to comment post game just how poor it was to not put the match to bed.

Next: Borussia Dortmund v Werder Bremen Post Game Quotes

Through it all, it looked as if Borussia Dortmund were playing their first match back from the winter break. Sloppy throughout and exhausted at the end, fans have to realize this isn’t a finished product. The club will get stronger and all that matters right now is that three away points were captured.

Next up is Mainz next Sunday.

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