28th matchday
Setback for BVB in the top game: 0-1 against Stuttgart
Away win in Dortmund: VfB Stuttgart now level on points with FC Bayern Munich. photo
© Bernd Thissen/dpa
Things have been going surprisingly well for BVB recently. But the 0-1 loss in the top game against VfB Stuttgart cost BVB fourth place in the table. This puts Champions League qualification in jeopardy.
The VfB Stuttgart professionals enjoyed their role as party crashers in front of those who were very disappointed BVB fans. The Swabians celebrated a 1-0 (0-0) draw in the top game of the Bundesliga against Champions League rivals Borussia Dortmund, who now have to worry about qualifying for the premier class.
A week after Dortmund’s statement victory at FC Bayern, Serhou Guirassy (64th minute) caused great disillusionment for coach Edin Terzic’s team with his goal in front of 81,365 spectators, which slipped to fifth place. That doesn’t give much encouragement for the quarter-final first leg in the Champions League at Atlético Madrid.
“We had a lot of chances, for me we were the better team today, we missed scoring the goals,” said Nico Schlotterbeck on Sky broadcaster. “We can expect a nice game in Madrid on Wednesday.”
“We want to stay there”
In contrast, the Stuttgart team took another big step towards the premier class. Thanks to the fifth Bundesliga away win in a row (club record), the third-placed team is already seven points ahead of the fifth-placed team. The Swabians drew level with FC Bayern on points. “It’s a decent gap, but we know there are still six games left,” said Angelo Stiller. “We want to stay there.”
There was a great atmosphere before kick-off. The fans celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Dortmund stadium with an impressive stadium choreography, a performance by the Dortmund Philharmonic and numerous other activities. A little later there was nothing comparable to see on the pitch. Both teams treated each other with a lot of respect and shied away from taking risks. Only a long-range shot by BVB captain Emre Can, which was parried by VfB keeper Alexander Nübel, was there a danger of scoring (14th).
Compared to the two poor performances against VfB so far this season, BVB was significantly more active this time. Nevertheless, for a long time there was a lack of brilliant ideas to shake the stable Stuttgart defense. The visitors’ wait-and-see tactics were almost rewarded early on: after Chris Führig’s cross, striker Guirassy was close to making it 1-0 with his header, but didn’t hit the ball properly (25′).
Schlotterbeck misses the chance to equalize
However, Dortmund’s biggest chance to date came when Mats Hummels fed the fast Karim Adeyemi (31′). But the attacker, who had recently improved his form, failed to score against Nübel.
However, the spectators did not see a lively top game with many goal area scenes until half time. Until then, the duel between the table neighbors lived on tactics and fight, rather than on playful finesse.
Even after the restart, restraint prevailed. Although BVB increased the pressure on the opponent’s goal, despite all their commitment, they couldn’t find any gaps. More and more both teams seemed to be waiting for the other to make a game-winning mistake.
At least for VfB, this approach paid off. Coach Sebastian Hoeneß’s team used a bad pass from Can to launch an exemplary counterattack and skilfully outplayed the previously stable BVB defense. Once again we could rely on striker Guirassy, who shot coldly after a low cross from Jamie Leweling. With his 24th goal of the season, Guirassy equalized Mario Gomez’s previous VfB record from the 2008/2009 season.
This deficit had an effect on Dortmund. They tried to turn the game around with furious attacks. That could have been successful if Schlotterbeck hadn’t shot the ball over the goal from three meters (80′).