SC Freiburg 2-1 Borussia Dortmund: Individual mistakes cost BVB in damaging defeat

Borussia Dortmund were handed their eighth Bundesliga defeat of the season, losing 2-1 away to SC Freiburg. Jeong Woo-yeong and Jonathan Schmid scored from long-range in quick succession to give Freiburg a 2-0 lead early in the second half. Youssoufa Moukoko pulled one back late on, but it wasn’t enough to rescue a point for the Black and Yellows.

Sloppy Borussia Dortmund fail to capitalise on early opportunities

Borussia Dortmund started well but had a scare early on Marwin Hitz almost lost possession of the ball in his box after a poor pass from Manuel Akanji. A minute later, Emre Can came close to opening the scoring after his left footed long-range shot rattled the bar. Freiburg came close to scoring again after Hitz dropped the ball back into danger, but this time Akanji reacted quickly to make the clearance before the Freiburg attacker could pounced.

Erling Haaland then came close to opening the scoring, but his close-range attempt was brilliantly saved by the Freiburg keeper. Haaland then had another attempt in the box, but this time his shot was rather comfortably saved. Freiburg were defending well and trying to deny Dortmund any space to play into. The passing was sloppy from the away side and they were losing possession needlessly far too often.

Early individual mistakes hurt Borussia Dortmund in the second half

SC Freiburg came out of the blocks strong for the second half and opened the scoring in the 49th minute after Jeong Woo-yeong’s long range attempt found the top corner. Then just two minutes later, Jonathan Schmid’s effort hit the post, but the ball ended up in the back of the net after a deflection off of Marwin Hitz.

Youssoufa Moukoko and Mahmoud Dahoud came on to try and change things up for Borussia Dortmund. The 16-year-old went close in the 62nd minute, but his low shot hit the post. Dortmund were continuing to push for a goal to try and get themselves back in the game, but Freiburg sat deep to ensure their opponents did not have any space to play with.

In the 75th minute, Moukoko was played through by Haaland and the substitute riffled the ball into the net to pull one back for the Black and Yellows. With Freiburg now under constant pressure they started to defend even deeper. Dortmund pressed relentlessly for an equaliser, but they were not able to put the ball into the net. Moukoko had the best chance to equalise in the 90th minute but was unable to convert his shot, with Reinier inadvertently getting in his way.

In the end, Borussia Dortmund dropped points yet again, losing further ground to the top three.  Edin Terzic’s side welcome Hoffenheim next weekend and they will be in desperate need for a win, with the pressure mounting on them to start picking up points to keep pace with the top four.