Jadon Sancho leads Borussia Dortmund to narrow win over Freiburg

Jadon Sancho’s first half goal proved to be the winner as Borussia Dortmund continued their impressive run with a 1-0 win over Freiburg.

Looking to build on their last three wins, Borussia Dortmund made just one enforced change for their game against Freiburg. Erling Haaland dropped to the bench after struggling with a stomach issue all week, giving way to Julian Brandt in the starting XI.

With Freiburg happy to sit back and defend, Borussia Dortmund got out of the blocks quickly and took the lead in the 15th minute through Jadon Sancho. The Englishman passed the ball into the back of the net after some good interplay around the box by Julian Brandt and Thorgan Hazard.

The goal, Sancho’s 14th of the season, allowed Borussia Dortmund to take control of the game, but it also gave Freiburg the initiative to come out of their shell.

Dortmund continued to dominate possession, but the absence of Erling Haaland’s physical presence around the box was being felt more and more with every passing attack. Vincenzo Grifo and Dominique Heintz came close for Freiburg as they started to get into the game, but Bürki’s goal was hardly threatened.

Julian Brandt and Axel Witsel both had chances towards the end of the end of the first half, but failed to find the target as the teams headed into the break.

A reported concussion to Mats Hummels prompted Lucien Favre to bring on Manuel Akanji at half-time. The Black and Yellows continued to have the majority of the ball after the break. But with tiredness creeping in, they weren’t really able to cause too many problems to Freiburg.

Lucien Favre brought on Erling Haaland and Gio Reyna to try and inspire his team. But even they weren’t able to make the desired impact.

Nils Petersen had Freiburg’s best chance of the game in the second half, but Lukasz Piszczek recovered really well to clear his goal bound header off the line. Freiburg had a couple of half chances towards the end, but Borussia Dortmund did just about enough to prevent them from finding a late equaliser.

The three points helped Borussia Dortmund stay within touching distance of Bayern Munich, who thumped Hoffenheim 6-0.  With just ten games to go before the end of the season, we are in for quite an end to the campaign.