Lineups
Borussia Dortmund: Bürki, Piszczek, Hummels, Akanji, Hakimi, Witsel (Haaland 61’), Can, Guerreiro, Sancho, Hazard (Reyna 74’), Brandt.
Fortuna Dusseldorf: Kastenmeier, Ayhan, Hoffmann, Giebelmann, Zimmermann, Stoger, Sobottka (Morales 81’), Suttner (Skrzybski 76’), Berisha, Karaman (Hennings 81’), Thommy (Zimmer 83’).
After a lackluster performance by Borussia Dortmund in normal time, Erling Haaland scored the winning goal against Fortuna Dusseldorf 5 minutes into stoppage time. Dortmund will consider themselves lucky as Dusseldorf were the better team in terms of desire, intensity, and creating chances.
The first half of the game almost seemed reminiscent of Dortmund’s previous game against Hertha Berlin. They dominated the ball but failed to create a bundle of chances. They had one really good chance though, which Achraf Hakimi squandered. Hakimi was played through on goal by Sancho, but failed to capitalise on the time and space he had. The Moroccan’s tame left-footed shot was thwarted by Dusseldorf’s goalkeeper, Kastenmeier. The attempt on goal was rather uncharacteristic of Hakimi, who is generally composed in front of goal.
The second half presented much of the same story as Dortmund were wasteful when they had the ball and lacked intensity in their counter-pressing and counter-attacking. They managed to get the ball into the back of the net after Raphaël Guerreiro’s sublime volley from the edge of the box was ruled out for a handball by the Video Assistant Referee. The decision to overturn the goal seemed harsh, as it looked like the ball grazed his shoulder rather than his arm.
Raphaël Guerreiro’s goal has been disallowed by VAR for handball. Incredibly harsh. #BVB pic.twitter.com/6AMVy5BIvp
— Jacob Culshaw (@jacob_culshaw) June 13, 2020
Dusseldorf created a couple of brilliant openings for themselves through substitute, Skrzybski who came on for the last 15 minutes of the game. The German will consider himself extremely unlucky as both his shots flew off the woodwork. For a club that are placed 16th on the table, it was surprising to see Dusseldorf outclass Dortmund; they made very few errors and would have hoped to take at least a point away from the game.
Their hopes were ruined, though, when Dortmund’s baby-faced assassin headed in from close range from Manuel Akanji’s cross in the dying minutes of the game. Dortmund’s players will breathe a huge sigh of relief as their result wasn’t a direct output of their performance. Most of the players on the field looked like they had nothing to play for, in effect meaning that the title race is over. The manager, Lucien Favre, will be concerned by the lack of effort his players showed on the field today, and the players are likely to get an earful from him.
Dortmund are now within 4 points of Bayern Munich, at the top of the table who will face a tricky opponent in Borussia Monchengladbach later on in the day.
