At Borussia Dortmund they had suspected for a long time that they would not be able to score four or five goals in every game. The captain Marco Reus had literally said that several times. On Saturday evening in Mönchengladbach, however, they didn’t even score three or two, in fact not even a single goal. Therefore it was of no use that they only conceded one goal and thus not as few as in five games before.
The fact that BVB lost 0: 1 (0: 1) at Borussia Mönchengladbach was probably no coincidence that the always warning captain Reus was absent due to injury as well as – worse still – the hurricane previously involved in eleven of 17 BVB hits named Erling Haaland. The fact that from the 40th minute after yellow-red for Mahmoud Dahoud, the Dortmund team only played ten, made their misfortune perfect.
So two players were not available to BVB – but the two most important were on the offensive, which is why you had the feeling that the Dortmund energy display was only 65 percent, if at all. “We missed Erling and Marco a lot,” said Mats Hummels, “and we missed even more with Giovanni Reyna and Julian Brandt – we therefore lacked the punch.” Hummels vigorously rebuked the dismissal for Dahoud because he had allowed himself to be carried away with a waving gesture in front of his second yellow card. “That was stupid,” said Hummels and added: “To send him down is wrong. But you can’t give the referee a chance.”
Referee Aytekin: “We deserve a minimum of respect.”
Hummels was probably right about the intention. Because referee Deniz Aytekin simply wanted to “set an example” with the card, he explained to the TV broadcaster Sky. “In the first scene we had Guerreiro a few minutes before, who waves it away. I explained to him in no uncertain terms that I didn’t want this behavior on the pitch. We deserve a minimum of respect.” He went on: “Of course you can say: It’s tough. Certain behavior on the pitch has to be prevented. Not everyone has a bye. All in all, this disrespectful wave was too much for me.”
Before the game, Dortmund’s coach Marco Rose had preferred to give his television interview in the stadium’s catacombs, while Lothar Matthäus is actually waiting on the sidelines as an expert for Saturday night games. But Rose knew that the Gladbach fans would not appear as rose cavaliers. When he took his seat in front of the bank just before kick-off, there was a whistle concert of the highest category garnished with hundreds of angry arm movements and verbal curses that you don’t want to see in print.
The anger of the Gladbach fans acts like a gas stove
But it was not a peace offer from Rose that he renounced Haaland and Reus. He simply could not use it after a “turbulent final training” on Friday, in which Reus had performed wrongly and failed with a capsule irritation in his knee, and in which Haaland had received a blow and was also unable to work with muscular problems.
The impolite greeting by the Gladbach fans was known to have something to do with the fact that Rose had announced his move from Mönchengladbach to Dortmund early last February and that the team then gambled away all of the season’s goals in consternation. The anger of the fans now acted like a gas stove on the protagonists on the lawn. Because after 50 seconds there was already the first pack formation. Gladbach’s Denis Zakaria clearly wanted to set signs of passion and attacked Dortmund’s Jew Bellingham aggressively, who complained bitterly and thus in turn provoked a dispute with Jonas Hofmann.
After everyone had calmed down, a game developed that missed offensive accents in the penalty area on both sides. Dortmund was not nearly as dangerous with the storm duo Donyell Malen / Youssoufa Moukoko as it was with Haaland – and at Gladbach, coach Adi Hütter, who was dissatisfied with the previous three games, wanted to set an example by playing players like Florian Neuhaus, Hannes Wolf, Patrick Herrmann and Alassane Plea had been banished to the bank. “The young players bring elements that we can really use,” he said before kick-off about players like Joe Scally, Luca Netz and access Kouadio Koné. Breel Embolo was allowed to play in the top right from the start.
Bellingham accidentally puts the ball down for Zakaria
Gladbach at least struggled to get balls in front of goal, from Dortmund initially too little came. The fact that their situation worsened within three minutes was equal parts bad luck and said stupidity. First, in the 37th minute, Bellingham unintentionally put the ball to Zakaria, who stormed into the penalty area, to give Gladbach a 1-0 lead. The bullet jumped off his shin, exactly in Zakaria’s trajectory. And in the 40th minute, Dortmund’s Dahoud saw yellow-red.
After seeing yellow in the 10th minute for a foul, he let himself be carried away to this derogatory movement with his right arm after a foul against Scally, which Aytekin immediately sanctioned. In addition to being sent off, Aytekin had given three yellow cards in a partly disheveled first half.
There it goes: Referee Deniz Aytekin sends Mahmoud Dahoud off the field with a yellow-red
(Photo: Thilo Schmülgen / Reuters)
Despite being outnumbered, Rose had to increase offensive efforts after the break, so he brought in attacker Thorgan Hazard for central defender Marin Pongracic. But it did little, so that Rose came on for Moukoko in the 57th minute. Amazingly, Gladbach made the game almost to the end despite the lead. The Dortmunders were waiting for switching moments, which they hardly got with their sedate manner. Only at the very end did they have a couple of good opportunities to equalize.
Previously, the Gladbacher had failed to use halfway good chances for the preliminary decision. In the end, they were happy that they had scored at least one goal and were able to move up to mid-table with their second win of the season.
“It was a real fight, and we won it,” said a delighted goal scorer Zakaria. “We have to go on like this now.” Jonas Hofmann was reminded of the good team spirit from the opening game in the 1-1 draw against Bayern Munich. “It certainly helped that Haaland and Reus were absent from Dortmund. That gave us additional self-confidence.