VfB Stuttgart 0-2 Borussia Dortmund: Key Takeaways

VfB Stuttgart hosted Borussia Dortmund at the Mercedes-Benz Arena this past Friday, with Die Schwarzgelben coming away with a 2-0 win.

The Bundesliga is inching closer and closer to it’s conclusion for the season. With only 5 match days left, Borussia Dortmund took an important step towards solidifying second place after they defeated VfB Stuttgart away from home this past Friday. The 2-0 win puts Dortmund 8 points clear of third placed Bayer Leverkusen. The Black and Yellows still sit nine points adrift of Bayern, who managed to beat Augsburg 1-0 over the weekend.

Dortmund’s excursion away to Stuttgart was a physical and end-to-end affair with many chances coming the way of the home side. In some ways, Dortmund were rather lucky that some of those Stuttgart chances went begging. And as much as Dortmund’s play was deserving of at least the two goals they did slot home, Stuttgart’s performance was far better than the scoreline suggests.

Just as Stuttgart’s performance was far better than the final scoreline, Dortmund’s performance was a mixed bag. Marco Rose’s side still allowed Stuttgart to have some very good opportunities to score, but also had spells of dominance where the home side’s play was contained, particularly in the second half. The performance was an improvement on their showing against Leipzig however, and not just from a scoreline standpoint. There were less haphazard passes, and more awareness in terms of not overplaying the ball in situations where the team could be hurt in transition. Let’s take a closer look at some of the takeaways from this win.