It was more of a routine Bundesliga party than ecstatic cheers that broke out in Dortmund’s south stand after Borussia Dortmund had achieved the most important goal of the season. With a confident 4-0 win against SC Freiburg, BVB will play in the Champions League for the eleventh time in a row next season.
“To do that three game days before the end of the season is what I wanted,” said coach Niko Kovac“I really liked it today, and I think the viewers did too.” However, the people of Freiburg also helped, as they were very friendly guests at this 1,000th home game in Dortmund’s Bundesliga history.
In the midst of their many cup games, Freiburg coach Julian Schuster didn’t take a number of important players with him to the area. Defense chief Matthias Ginter was missing, as were the two most important players in possession, Johan Manzambi and Yuito Suzuki, as well as left-back Jordi Makengo, who was used in the big games. The quartet should recover after the exertions of the 120 semi-final minutes DFB Cup recover from Thursday in Stuttgart. In addition, Jan-Niklas Beste only sat on the bench, the thoughts behind it are obvious.
Freiburg is hopelessly inferior at the beginning
The Freiburg team have understood that the semi-finals in the Europa League, which will be played on the next two Thursdays, offer a historic opportunity that may not come again for decades. Everyone should be as fresh as possible in the first leg at Sporting Braga. In addition, victories in the European Cup increase the probability that eighth place in the Bundesliga will also be eligible to take part in the Europa League and that eighth place will be allowed to play in the Conference League. That’s exactly where the SC is now behind the Frankfurt team with the same points.
And so the Freiburg team played with a team that was hopelessly inferior to BVB, especially at the beginning. An early positional error by Derry Scherhant when a long ball from Ramy Bensebaini from the Dortmund half contributed to the 1-0 lead (8th). Six minutes later, Serhou Guirassy made it 2-0 after Christian Günter lost his bearings and didn’t communicate clearly enough with Bruno Ogbus.
And when Bensebaini headed a corner into the goal against Maximilian Eggestein, who was defending far too timidly, to make it 3-0, the game was practically decided (32nd). “The decisive factor was how we defended, which wasn’t good enough for the first two goals,” said Freiburg coach Julian Schuster, who praised his team for their performance in the second half: “The way the team comes out of it after being down 3-0 is remarkable.”
The SC almost came close again when Lukas Kübler headed a free kick into the Dortmund goal in the 55th minute, but the Freiburg player was a few centimeters offside. Shortly before the end, substitute Fabio Silva was able to celebrate the 4-0 and thus his second Bundesliga goal (87th). Marcel Sabitzer said: “We trained very focused the whole week. We ran the ball well, energy, sharpness, we had that on point today, and then we win 4-0.”
“Today was difficult”
However, Freiburg’s fatigue after losing the DFB Cup semi-final and the focus on the Europa League were just as relevant to the game as Dortmund’s enthusiasm for the game. “It was difficult today, we rotated a lot and had two away trips in a row,” said Maximilian Eggestein, one of the constant players who also held out until the end that day.
For the Dortmund team, this success was not only important because they were able to take part in the Champions League is fixed. The 4-0 win also serves as a means of overcoming doubts about the squad, the style of play and, in some parts of the BVB bubble, even the overall very successful coach Niko Kovac, which would have received new support if there was another setback.
The Dortmund team is spared a worsening situation on this front and Kovac can continue to work on setting the course for next season. The starting eleven, for example, included Samuele Inacio, who had just celebrated his 18th birthday and who almost scored his first Bundesliga goal after an hour. Shortly before the end, Albert Mathis, 16, was able to collect his first Bundesliga minutes.
In the second half, Dortmund somehow let this game end without the greatest use of energy, just as they can now let this season end. They still have to defend second place in the table and can help Freiburg on their way to qualifying for the European Cup again if they beat Eintracht Frankfurt in the last home game of the season. “We can say goodbye really nicely and we still have goals,” said Kovac, while Sabitzer added: “It is our aim that, at worst, we want to be number two in the league. That is the mission.”
