Match Report: Borussia Dortmund narrow winners over Werder Bremen

Borussia Dortmund squeaked a 2-1 win over Werder Bremen in what could have been a 4-4 draw on match day 15 to remain undefeated.

These are the types of games that you need to win in order to challenge Bayern for the title. Borussia Dortmund did not dominate this game in any facet of the word. In order to remain at the top of the Bundesliga and in the title race you need to win some games that you might not deserve to win.

This was the case for Borussia Dortmund today, Werder Bremen gave them a very tough go over the 90 minutes. It’s very rare you see BVB jump out to a 2-0 lead within the first 30 minutes and then struggle to remain in control. Missing chance after chance, Borussia Dortmund allowed Werder Bremen to not only stay in the game but cause a real threat in the second half.

Borussia Dortmund started the game on the front foot. Jumping out to a relatively early lead and seemingly in control, this looked to be game Dortmund would close out with ease. Paco Alcacer started the scoring off a free kick routine that had Guerreiro make a dummy run forward, only to come back and take the free kick himself. Werder Bremen were caught completely off guard and left Paco wide open around the penalty spot to head the ball home. Marco Reus added to Dortmund’s lead on a counter attack where he linked up with Jadon Sancho out wide. Sancho once again found Reus in the middle with a perfect pass just out of Nuri Sahin’s reach. Making no mistake, Reus made it 2-0. There was a clear penalty on Marco Reus early in the first half that both the ref waived off as well as VAR didn’t intervene. Which is baffling when you consider the VAR penalty awarded to Schalke just a week ago.

Not long after Reus made it 2-0, Max Kruse scored a wonder goal off a volley outside the Dortmund 18 yard box. Roman Burki had absolutely no chance. Going into the half 2-1 Borussia Dortmund would need to come out strong to keep Bremen at bay in the second half.

However, it wasn’t Borussia Dortmund who came out strong in the second half it was Werder Bremen. Pressing high and taking the play to Dortmund they carved out their own dangerous opportunities to start the half but just couldn’t find a way past Burki. Max Kruse had another volley in the second half that Roman Burki just got his fingertips on to push wide, otherwise Kruse would have tied the game up with lots of time left.

Borussia Dortmund also had their chances in the second half and quite frankly should have put the game out of reach multiple times. Jadon Sancho had one clear cut breakaway saved by Jiri Pavlenka and one half break that he hit the side netting on. On top of that there were multiple crosses just out of reach of tap ins as Paco Alcacer and Marco Reus both had chances to slide one of them in. Mario Gotze did score a third goal in the final minute of injury time but it was eventually brought back for offside by VAR.

Borussia Dortmund should without a doubt have put this game to bed much earlier but at the end of the day this is a massive 3 points for the Black and Yellows. Now 9 points clear of both Bayern and Monchengladbach, Dortmund are guaranteed top of the table going into the January break regardless of the results of the final two games. With Fortuna Dusseldorf and Borussia Monchengladbach coming up Borussia Dortmund will look to round out the first half of the season strong.