Nico Schlotterbeck and Alexander Meyer accepted the congratulations of their relieved teammates, the Dortmund fans were already singing about the championship in the intoxication of the next victory: Thanks to courageous rescue operations by Schlotterbeck and goalkeeper Meyer deep in added time, Borussia Dortmund made it 2-1 (1-0 ) in the intense top game against RB Leipzig and secured at least one night at the top of the table with the club record of eight league wins in a row. Bayern Munich can counter on Saturday at VfB Stuttgart.
“We are very, very happy,” said captain Marco Reus at DAZN. “We had to tremble to the end. But in the end I’d rather win than play well and lose. It was our great wish to take the lead again and keep pushing.”
For a long time, Borussia moderated the Leipzig onslaught as uncompromisingly as they have done with all opponents in recent weeks. Reus (21st) converted a penalty kick and became the second-best goal scorer in the club’s history (159); RB professional Xaver Schlager deflected a shot from Emre Can (39.) into the goal. After the tenth win in the tenth competitive game since the beginning of the year, Dortmund’s self-confidence is immense.
Nico Schlotterbeck saves the 2:1 by fending off Timo Werner’s shot just before the goal line with his shoulder joint.
Leipzig missed the opportunity to open a four-way battle for the cup with a win. The cup winners are seven points behind and must see to securing another qualification for the Champions League. Emil Forsberg (74th) scored for RB – then there wasn’t enough from the guests for a while, who still had two great chances to make it 2-2 at the end of injury time: but Timo Werner’s shot was blocked by Nico Schlotterbeck just before the goal line with his shoulder joint , and a volley from Forsberg was just parried by substitute goalkeeper Alexander Meyer. “We played a great second half, we were under pressure and we were the better team,” said Forsberg. “Dortmund are doing very well, they’re on the run. All you can say is ‘congratulations’.”
“The result is difficult to accept, the second half was more than clear to us,” said Marco Rose, adding overly critically: “Over ninety minutes with this performance in Dortmund it’s hard to accept that we lose a game like that. The boys I have to say that exactly what we mentioned before happened with the goals conceded.”
His counterpart was understandably overjoyed. “We played really well in the first half – and defended passionately in the second,” said Edin Terzic. “It wasn’t easy to score a goal against us today. We’re very happy with our performance, it was an absolutely top game. At this level, it’s not just performance and form that count, but also the willingness to help each other.”
RB coach Marco Rose was initially happy at the start of the game because Christopher Nkunku, Germany’s footballer of the year, made his comeback in the RB starting eleven after 111 days. Dortmund lacked the outstanding support of the past few weeks for a very short time. Goalkeeper Gregor Kobel got muscle problems while warming up, Schlotterbeck saved representative Meyer with a tackle against Nkunku before the first test (4th).
Emil Forsberg (No. 10) seemed to score the connecting goal for Leipzig just in time – but the chances to make it 2-2 remained unused.
(Photo: Reuters/Leon Kuegeler)
After winning the ball, Leipzig liked to play straight into the top, where the immediately very present Nkunku and André Silva lurked dangerously. Julian Brandt used the first BVB action perfectly, but the reliable referee Sven Jablonski took the goal back after VAR called from Cologne: the ball jumped on Brandt’s arm (14′). Josko Gvardiol blocked his next shot, it went up and down at high speed until RB goalkeeper Janis Blaswich got Reus off his feet. The captain caught up with Michael Zorc in the record list.
After that it got a little quieter because Dortmund’s passing chains were repeatedly interrupted and Leipzig got longer periods of ball possession. The RB attacks were initially not very consistent even after the break. Nkunku was also gone for a long time – longer pressure phases ended without precise conclusions. BVB was solid, but rarely found a counterattack: Blaswich made a spectacular save against Reus (67th).
Jude Bellingham, Can and Salih Özcan consolidated the midfield enormously – that could also be a solution for the Champions League second leg at Chelsea on Tuesday (1-0). At the other end, Silva and Szoboszlai shot just wide of the top corner and Meyer reacted strongly to an Nkunku shot (70′), then Forsberg put the ball into the goal (74′). But the Saxons couldn’t get past Schlotterbeck.