Guerreiro The Hero In “The Battle for Borussia” As Dortmund Comes Back From 2-1 Deficit

Mönchengladbach, Germany — In one of the Bundesliga’s most coveted rivalries, Borussia Dortmund took on their rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach in front of a packed house at Borussia-Park. After being down 2-1 due to two errors, Dortmund mounted a comeback that was topped off by a Raphael Guerreiro header to seal three points for boys in black and yellow.

Match Recap:

From the start, it seemed that Dortmund was going to run away with the match. Future Dortmund midfielder Mahmoud Dahoud conceded a penalty early in the 9th minute after Christian Pulisic got in behind the Gladbach defense, thus rewarding the early offensive onslaught of Dortmund.

Following the penalty call, Marco Reus stepped and slotted home the opener, thus giving him a goal in three consecutive matches since returning from injury.

The momentum for Dortmund began to fade though at the 22nd minute, as midfield mastermind Nuri Şahin was subbed off due to an injury. Şahin’s replacement, Spanish youngster Mikel Merino, wasn’t able to play up to the quality of Şahin as Merino decided to continue the trend of crucial Dortmund mistakes.

With the halftime whistle only minutes away, Merino had a lapse in concentration and played a pass right to the feet of Gladbach winger André Hahn. Hahn then slotted a ball to Gladbach captain Lars Stindl, who leveled at one all heading into halftime.

After most likely getting lectured by Tuchel during halftime, Dortmund decided to make life even more difficult for themselves. In the 48th minute, Gladbach whipped in a corner that somehow found the feet of Marcel Schmelzer, who deflected the ball into the Dortmund net.

An all too familiar script seemed to be writing itself again for Dortmund and a defeat looked probable after ten minutes of poor play. However, Thomas Tuchel decided to mix things up to spark some life in the Dortmund attack.

In the 57th minute, Tuchel subbed off Reus for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in an attempt to rejuvenate the attack. Two minutes later, Aubameyang delivered.

After a great ball in, Aubameyang danced past Gladbach goalkeeper Yann Sommer and slotted his league-leading 27th goal of the year. After seemingly running out of energy, Dortmund found a way to get back into the match.

For the remainder of the match, Dortmund was the aggressor of the two Borussia sides. Dortmund controlled possession, created multiple chances, and eventually found a goal to win.

After hitting the post a few minutes earlier, Portuguese international Raphaël Guerreiro headed in a free kick in the 87th to complete the comeback and seal three points for the visitors.

With their win today, Dortmund moved one point ahead of Hoffenheim to secure third place in the Bundesliga table. Up next for Dortmund is another rival, Bayern Munich, in the DFB Cup Semi-final on Wednesday.