Borussia Dortmund, Nuri Sahin taught painful lesson in 5-1 defeat to Stuttgart

Borussia Dortmund had an evening to forget away to VfB Stuttgart as they were thoroughly outplayed and fell to a well deserved 5-1 defeat.

For the second time in less than four years, Borussia Dortmund experienced a nightmarish 5-1 defeat against VfB Stuttgart. Unlike that fateful defeat at home in 2020, it is unlikely that the head coach will pay the ultimate price this time around. But Nuri Sahin will certainly be facing the heat in the coming days amid some of his bold selection calls and the sub-standard performance from his side on Sunday.

It was also a fourth straight defeat to VfB Stuttgart for Borussia Dortmund, who utterly dominated proceedings from the first whistle to the last. Deniz Undav and Enzo Millot starred for the Swabians, with the former grabbing two goals and the latter scoring one and assisting another.

Abject Borussia Dortmund convincingly beaten by Stuttgart

Borussia Dortmund were second best in all departments right from the get go, with Deniz Undav taking full advantage of a defensive mishap to give Stuttgart the lead in the fourth minute. The home side doubled their lead in the 21st minute through Ermedin Demirović, who headed home from Maximilian Mittelstädt’s cross after finding himself in acres of space inside the BVB box.

Stuttgart were in full control, creating chances at will as Borussia Dortmund struggled to keep up. Undav came close to doubling his tally twice, but Gregor Kobel stood firm on both occasions to deny him.

Jamie Gittens came off the bench to replace the injured Felix Nmecha in the first-half and nearly made an instant impact on the stroke of half-time. But his effort on the counter-attack went just wide.

After a toothless first-half performance, Nuri Sahin looked to change things up by bringing on Yan Couto and Ramy Bensebaini.

Borussia Dortmund looked a lot sharper at the start of the second-half, but it was Stuttgart who struck next. Woeful BVB defending from a corner allowed Enzo Millot to make it 3-0 for the home side.

Serhou Guirassy then gave Borussia Dortmund a route back into the game in the 75th minute, outmuscling Dan-Axel Zagadou before finding the back of the net at the end of a swift counter-attack.

But Borussia Dortmund’s hope was short-lived as Millot dribbled his way into the box past two defenders before finding El Bilal Toure, who opened his goalscoring account in the Bundesliga. Emre Can then gifted Stuttgart a fifth late on, giving the ball away before Deniz Undav fired home to heap more misery on Nuri Sahin's side.

While Borussia Dortmund's start to the season has shown some promise, it is also fair to say that some of the results had papered over the cracks. Until now. Sahin certainly has a lot of work to do with his players, otherwise things could get ugly again when BVB go up against the big guns in the coming months.