Borussia Monchegladbach 4-2 Borussia Dortmund
Bundesliga, Matchday 18
22/01/21
It’s only halfway into the season and already a team with the talents of Haaland, Sancho, Reyna and co are practically out of the title race having lost their second match in a row and seventh of the season.
It was a thrilling encounter at Borussia Park which saw the Foals turn round a twelve game losing streak against Dortmund to come away with all three points.
Four goals were scored in the first half, two by Haaland and two by Nico Elvedi before Ramy Bensebaini and Marcus Thuram gave the Foals their first win over Dortmund since 2015.
Any chances of Dortmund being the ones to stop Bayern winning a record 9 titles in a row are all but ended with Bayern visiting bottom of the table Schalke on Sunday. A win for The Reds will see them go thirteen points ahead of the BlackYellows.
Gladbach leapfrog Dortmund who drop out of the Champions League spots after tonight’s result.
Further articles:
–Borussia Dortmund Defeated At Leverkusen 2-1 Losing Further Ground On The Bundesliga Lead: Match Report
–Bayern Munich Survive Late Scare To Beat Freiburg 2-1 In Bundesliga: Match Report
–Inquest: Bayern Crash Out The Cup To Division 2 Side Kiel Ending Defence Of The Treble – Are There Problems Emerging At The European Champions?
1st half: VAR controversy and a goal-fest
You’d think, when looking at it on paper, a fixture won twelve straight times by one of the opposition (that being Dortmund) would make for a pretty tepid encounter, but from the moment Jude Bellingham was barged in the back by Jonas Hofmann on just a little over 20 seconds everyone got angry.
Florian Neuhaus scored with a top corner curler in under a minute after Jadon Sancho tried to play the ball out the back. It came to Jude Bellingham who was blatantly barged in the back by Hofmann winning the ball and setting up the goal.
Referee Manuel Grafe would have one hell of a night as, having barely put his ref’s uniform on, he had BVB players screaming at him for a freekick. Grafe was advised by VAR to check the pitch-side monitor which he duly did and which he duly made the correct call to reverse his original decision and award a freekick on the edge of the Dortmund box.
Now Grafe had to deal with Gladbach players screaming in his face and coach Marco Rose kicking air on the touchline in disgust at the reversal. Perhaps this is why refs don’t like to use pitch-side monitors.
Dortmund are close to the horrors having only picked up one point in their last two and sitting a colossal 10 points behind Bayern Munich in the title race.
So bad is the situation that even Erling Haaland, the carefree goalscoring machine, has seized up in front of goal, finding the net once in his last five appearances.
Dortmund losing to Gladbach would be a real marker on how bad this season is turning out – Dortmund have won all encounters with the Foals since 2016.
But the BlackYellows were on the back foot almost instantly. Jonas Hofmann – the first player ever to switch directly from Dortmund to Borussia Park – had a shot from 18 yards tipped wide by Roman Burki.
It took 11 minutes for Dortmund to cave. Hofmann swung a freekick in from midway in BVB’s half and Nico Elvedi nodded home.
Grafe was put in another difficult situation by his VAR colleagues being made to wait on an offiside check for the goal, which was eventually overruled.
Crises are pretty short in football and Dortmund equalised through the always relaxed Erling Haaland as if nothing bad had come before, such as managerial sackings, six losses in the league and Bellingham’s early performance.
Bellingham looked off the pace but it was he who won the ball back and played in Sancho to set up Haaland to score with a lovely dinked finish.
Five minutes later Dortmund took the lead through Haaland after great work by Sancho on the edge of the box but that lead lasted less than five minutes before the Foals equalised. Lars Stindl’s low freekick from 25 yards found a gap through the BVB defence meaning Burki had to make a save but only parried it into the centre of the box for Elvedi to get his second.
It was a relief to see the half over after the avalanche of incidences that had to be kept up with. Before the whistle Hummels had a header well saved from a corner and Sancho and Neuhaus had shots that went just wide. To be honest there was enough chances in the first half to write a book on the match.
2nd half: Dortmund put to the sword
Gladback reclaimed the lead in under four minutes of the restart.
Hofmann was given far too much time on the left by Morey Bauza to do what he wanted and eventually the ball was worked to Ramy Bensebaini, a defender, (that’s the type of night it was) who squeezed a shot through a sea of bodies to score.
Gladbach were millimetres away from making it 4-2, literally. After Manual Akanji lost the ball in the middle of the park, Hofmann broke, played it outside him to Alassane Plea who’s finish grazed the post and rolled wide.
To compound matters further for BVB, next to step into the fray of this thriller was Marcus Thuram. Back from suspension, the Frenchman was a revelation in his debut season for Gladbach last term, scoring ten and providing eight assists, and the forward was almost in instantly but Lars Stindl’s through ball was covered by Manuel Akanji and played back to Burki.
Thuram did make a critical impact twelve minutes after being subbed on, scoring a header from a corner on 78’ to make it 4-2.
Substitute Breel Embolo had a chance to extend the lead but his one-on-one was saved by Burki on 83’.
Bundesliga’s youngest ever scorer, Yousouffa Moukoko, almost reduced the deficit to one but his powerful strike was pushed away by Yann Sommer on 90’.
B Monchengladback, 4-4-2: Sommer (GK), Lainer, Bensebaini, Elvedi, Ginter – Zakaria (->84′), Kramer, Hofmann (->65′), Neuhaus – Stindl(C) (->70′), Plea (->70′)
Subs: Sippel (GK), Thuram (->65′), Herrmann (->84′), Wolf (->70′), Beyer, Embolo (->70′), Wendt, Benes, Jantschke
BVB, 4-2-3-1: Burki (GK), Hummels, Akanji, Guerreiro, Morey Bauza (->87′) – Bellingham (->79′), Can – Reus (C), Sancho, Brandt (-71′) – Haaland
Subs: Hitz (GK), Dahoud, Schulz, Reyna (->71′), Piszczek, Renier, Tigges (->87′), Meunier, Moukoko (->79′)
Goals: Elvedi 11’,32’, Haaland 23’, 28’, Bensebaini 49’, Thuram 78’
Harry Jamshid Reporter Sports Pages 