Borussia Dortmund remain in close pursuit of Bayern after 2-1 win over Union Berlin

Borussia Dortmund eked out a 2-1 home victory over Union Berlin thanks to record setting teenager Youssoufa Moukoko to remain on the heels of Bayern Munich.

Coming into the game Union Berlin had the least goals conceded in the Bundesliga while Borussia Dortmund boasted the second best goal scoring stats in the league. Union Berlin also hold the intriguing record of having the lowest average possession stats in the German top tier and on the face of it this should give a good enough idea about their broad game-plan that they’ve executed with near perfection this season.

Borussia Dortmund had Karim Adeyemi back in the starting line-up after his return from a muscle injury. Marius Wolf was out with an illness and was replaced by Julian Ryerson as the right-back with Raphael Guerreiro falling back into his old left-back slot. Nico Schlotterbeck missed the game through injury and Mats Hummels started in his place. Sebastien Haller was back in the line-up as well, starting with Donyell Malen and Karim Adeyemi on his wings.

The initial phase of the game behaved against expectations as Union Berlin saw more of the ball and kept Borussia Dortmund on the back-foot. But after the first 10 minutes or so, BVB started to find their footing. It was always expected that Union Berlin would want to sit in a low block and rely on counter attacks, mostly through aerial long balls.

Wary of that, BVB took the game to Union by creating constant overloading up the pitch. Karim Adeyemi and Donyell Malen were particularly impressive, causing problems with their incessant runs in and around the Union defence. The front three, along with Brandt and Bellingham, often occupied the defence, giving Guerreiro and Ryerson a lot of space on the flanks to deliver crosses.

This pressure created the first goal, with Donyell Malen practically tapping in a beautiful Raphael Guerreiro cross from the left wing. The Dutchman displayed some tidy footwork to hold on to the ball despite pressure from two Union players and found Bellingham, who opened up the game by spreading the ball to Julian Brandt. The playmaker then released Guerreiro on the left, who crossed the ball in for a darting Malen to tap home from close range.

Union Berlin started the second half stronger and tried to enforce their game further. They were rewarded for it with an equaliser in the 60th minute by Kevin Behrens.

“Typical Union goal. Long ball, into the strikers”, “Süle switches off and Behrens doesn’t”, the commentators pretty much summed it up there. Union’s defence launched a long ball towards their forwards, Kevin Behrens and Shrealdo Becker. Niklas Süle failed to prevent Behrens from winning the initial header and getting the ball to Becker.

Süle was caught ball watching as Becker teed up the ball for an incoming Behrens at the top of the box who then hit a low and hard finish into Kobel’s left to make it 1-1.

Borussia Dortmund kept the pressure on and searched for the winner when Union keeper Frederik Rønnow launched a long ball deep into the BVB half. Juranovic brought it down beautifully and released Becker who managed to get into a 1v1 situation against Kobel. It took a magnificent Guerreiro tackle to prevent an almost certain goal for Becker.

Edin Terzic decided to bring on Marco Reus and Youssoufa Moukoko to inspire something and that’s precisely what they did. Some hard running and quick passing from both of them led to Reus running parallel to the Union defensive line when Paul Seguin’s attempted challenge released a stray ball between the goalkeeper and the back four. Moukoko was the fastest to react to this and went around the keeper to deliver what ended up being the winner for Borussia Dortmund with 12 minutes of time remaining.

The win means that Borussia Dortmund continue to remain on the heels of Bayern Munich who defeated SC Freiburg 1-0 with a deflected Matthijs de Ligt goal.