Hopefully conservationists didn’t misunderstand what Borussia Dortmund’s football coach Marco Rose announced the day before the game: “I’m stabbing a hornet’s nest.” Wasps are protected and should not be stung in their nests. Rose, of course, only meant metaphorically his sometimes phlegm-prone footballers in their black and yellow wasp costumes. Anyone who stabs into a nest provokes aggression and aggressiveness. That was Rose’s rhetorical cabin plan after the embarrassing 4-2 Europa League defeat to Glasgow Rangers. He wanted to encourage his players. And that’s allowed.
The opposing footballers from Borussia Mönchengladbach could have taken appropriate precautions: light lemon candles, burn coffee powder, spray water – what you do against unwanted wasps. The Rhinelanders wanted to solve it in a playful way. But they are currently not in the condition to keep up with Dortmund, who are in a good mood again for a change. The hosts didn’t seem particularly aggressive, but as so often after embarrassing performances, they pulled themselves together this time. That was enough to humiliate weak Gladbachers who were in danger of relegation in this condition with 6: 0 (2: 0). With two goals and three assists, Dortmund’s captain, former Gladbacher Marco Reus, became the man of the day.
A win of a comparable magnitude next Thursday in the second leg in Glasgow would even put Dortmund in the round of 16 of the Europa League. Suddenly the gray world looks more hopeful again. “We had to show a reaction and we did it,” Reus praised the whole team on Sunday evening. “But we have to do that even when we’re not good at the game.” That could be very important in Glasgow.
Dortmund’s exceptional striker Erling Haaland was again only in the stands against Gladbach. Central defender Manuel Akanji and full-back Thomas Meunier were also injured. The new sports director Roland Virkus was on the bench for the Gladbachers, where captain Lars Stindl is still absent. He wants to replace the resigned Max Eberl fairly silently. The 55-year-old was previously responsible for Gladbach’s youth football, now he shares responsibility for the future of the football club. In terms of sport, this is still at a crossroads. The lead to the relegation place is only four points.
“Very immature,” criticizes Gladbach’s Hofmann, “that shouldn’t happen like that.”
The 100th Bundesliga duel between the two Borussias was expected to pay homage to Prussian virtues. After all, Borussia is the neo-Latin word for Prussia. Prussian virtues are diligence, order and punctuality as well as all those qualities that Rose had hoped for by stabbing the hornet’s nest.
The first half was even a bit poor from a Prussian point of view. Nevertheless, things went well for BVB. Reus made it 1-0 in the 26th minute after Gladbach goalkeeper Yann Sommer deflected a shot from Donyell Malen. Six minutes later, Reus put the ball on Malen to make it 2-0. In this 32nd minute, the rainy game in front of 10,000 spectators seemed to have already been decided. Most of them didn’t mind.
BVB had to make two changes due to injury in the first half: Julian Brandt came on for Giovanni Reyna and Marian Pongracic for Dan-Axel Zagadou. But that didn’t mean a break. It proved to be relevant for the defense of the lead that the goalkeeper Gregor Kobel boxed successful Gladbach shots from there in a foolhardy manner. In the 62nd minute he deflected a shot from Jonas Hofmann to the crossbar. The Rhenish Borussia is currently rather harmless offensively.
Worse still, she collapsed defensively in the final 20 minutes. Marius Wolf (70th), Youssoufa Moukoko (74th), Reus again (81st) and Emre Can with a penalty kick in the 91st minute increased to 6: 0 and led Dortmund to happiness – and the other Borussia to the realm of humiliation . “Very immature”, Gladbach’s Hofmann criticized the performance in the second half. “It must not happen like this.”