26th matchday
BVB back to fourth place: 3-1 against Frankfurt
A header goal from Mats Hummels put Borussia Dortmund on the road to victory. photo
© Bernd Thissen/dpa
BVB regained fourth place in the table with a 3-1 win against Frankfurt. Mats Hummels and Emre Can decide the game late. The next few weeks will be crucial for the Revierclub.
Four days after their success against PSV Eindhoven (2-0) and their place in the quarter-finals of the European premier class, Borussia Dortmund continued their recent high with a 3-1 (1-1) victory over Eintracht Frankfurt.
“We have won all of the last four games and are going into the break with a much better feeling than we felt two weeks ago,” said Mats Hummels, who made it 2-1 (81st minute). The other BVB goals were scored by Karim Adeyemi (33rd) and Emre Can (90th + 3/foul penalty) in front of 81,365 spectators in the sold-out Signal Iduna Park.
Hummels looks towards “Knaller-April”
Can scored after his red card for serious foul play had been converted into yellow following video evidence (87′). “I’m clearly playing the ball and that’s the important thing,” said Can. Ex-Dortmunder Mario Götze, who had given the guests an early lead (13th), criticized the video assistant’s intervention: “It must be a very clear wrong decision – for me it’s not honest.”
With the victory, BVB regained fourth place in the table, which it had lost to Leipzig the day before. After their fourth competitive win in a row, Dortmund are heading into the next five weeks strengthened with the top Bundesliga games against Munich, Stuttgart, Leipzig and Leverkusen as well as the two Champions League duels with Atlético Madrid. “Now we have a great April. We can show where we stand,” said Hummels.
In contrast, a successful streak with five Bundesliga games without defeat has come to an end for the sixth-place team from Frankfurt. “I think we would have had a good chance of taking something away here today,” said Eintracht keeper Kevin Trapp, who was particularly struggling with the late goals conceded after a free kick and a penalty.
Adeyemi equalizes
The Dortmund team, which had to make do without the ailing regular goalkeeper Gregor Kobel and the suspended clockmaker Marcel Sabitzer, got off to a false start and was 1-0 behind immediately after Eintracht’s first chance. Omar Marmoush was denied by Kobel substitute Alexander Meyer from close range after a mistake by Nico Schlotterbeck, but in doing so he brought the former Dortmund player Götze into position. The 2014 world champion hit the net with a well-placed shot from the edge of the penalty area.
It was only this early deficit that caused BVB to pick up the pace. That immediately created a goal threat. With a double chance from Marco Reus (17th) and Niclas Füllkrug (18th), whose header was cleared by Willian Pacho on the line, the equalizer was close.
The high proportion of ball possession of almost 70 percent and Borussia’s now impressive combination play paid off a little later. After a solo on the right wing, the fast Donyell Malen fed the free Adeyemi, who pushed the ball over the line from close range for the deserved equalizer. This put BVB back in the game, but they were unable to create another scoring opportunity until the break.
After the restart, the guests initially freed themselves from the pressure from Dortmund. Marmoush forced BVB keeper Meyer to do a brilliant deed in the 68th minute with a shot from ten meters. Although the German runner-up still had more possession of the ball, they didn’t capitalize enough on it. Apart from a blocked shot by Julian Brandt (72nd), Terzic’s team didn’t have a clear chance to score for a long time. But a lucky header from Hummels after a free kick from Brandt saved BVB from a setback. Can then removed the last doubts about victory with a converted foul penalty in stoppage time.
BVB squad Eintracht squad information about the game