Erling Haaland had tied his blonde mane into a ponytail this time. This made it possible to twirl through the opposing half without any problems. However, anyone who had the opera glasses in the stadium or had the eyesight of a bird of prey recognized from the stands: Wait a minute, that wasn’t Haaland at all, that was Marius Wolf, who played Borussia Dortmund’s solo entertainer against Arminia Bielefeld, so to speak. He was observed appreciatively by the real Haaland, who was back in the squad for the first time after a 50-day break due to injury, but was only substituted on in the 62nd minute.
Marius Wolf doesn’t usually belong in the front row, but on Sunday BVB were missing ten players against Bielefeld, which is why the starting eleven was mixed up. A back four with Felix Passlack, Emre Can, Marian Pongracic and Nico Schulz had never been seen here before. Wolf as a tenth behind the storm duo Thorgan Hazard / Donyell Malen also looked unusual. But Wolf lived up to his name. He panted through the opposing half with remarkable commitment. And so it was no coincidence that he scored the goal of the day after Jude Bellingham’s initiation and Hazard’s assist in the 21st minute.
In the end, Dortmund won with precisely this goal 1-0 (1-0) and on Wednesday evening in the catch-up game at FSV Mainz 05 they get the chance to move up to four points behind the leaders Bayern Munich. In the Ruhr area, some are now starting to count again. On the penultimate weekend in April, Dortmund are guests in Munich, on the fourth-to-last matchday. Maybe there is still a bit of tension?
“Hope dies last,” Can tried an old saying after the win when he was asked about the long-distance duel with Bayern. “We look from game to game and not at Bayern,” he claimed, but also admitted: “Our goal is always to be there for as long as possible.” Unfortunately, that didn’t work out in the cup and European cup this season. In the championship, on the other hand, BVB may still have a chance to stay tuned to the end.
Not least perhaps because the striker Haaland is back in the Dortmund squad almost two months after his last assignment at the end of January. Because he was only strong enough for half an hour, he initially sat on the bench on Sunday. When he came into play, he wore a ponytail just like Wolf. However, Wolf withdrew a bit and left the offensive to Haaland. In the 70th minute, Wolf had to be substituted because of a neck problem.
Back in the game: Erling Haaland, here shortly before his substitution.
(Photo: Martin Meissner/AP)
Around 33,000 spectators were in the huge BVB stadium this time and enjoyed every minute with Haaland. There are increasing rumors that the Norwegian is leaving BVB in the summer. Manchester City is now the hottest candidate, ahead of Real Madrid.
Bielefeld, coached by the assistant Ilia Gruev in the absence of the corona-isolated coach Frank Kramer, had to do without eight players on Sunday, six of them also corona-infected. Irrespective of this, the Bielefeld team did not shy away from repeatedly bothering the Dortmund defense. Especially at the beginning of the first and second half, the East Westphalians didn’t seem averse to a goal, they just lacked the necessary effectiveness.
However, Dortmund didn’t play as one. In the 59th minute, Malen threw the ball under the crossbar of the Bielefeld goal, but it bounced back in front of the goal line and thus denied Dortmund the second goal they needed to calm down against a latently dangerous Bielefeld goal. Because they didn’t want to score a second goal that evening, including Haaland, they had to worry a bit until the end. It wasn’t until the final whistle that there was a relieved celebration.