Borussia Dortmund stands for spectacle. For offensive football. For goals. Labor and compulsory victories are rare at BVB. After the competitive 2-0 win at VfL Wolfsburg, Lucien Favre spoke of pleasure. “I don’t want to talk about Bayern yet, first of all we want to enjoy this victory,” said the Borussia Dortmund coach. For Favre, the pleasure was that BVB was again very efficient and both shots on goal landed on the net. Wolfsburg was granted a shot on goal, saved by goalkeeper Roman Bürki.
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Dortmund have now won six Bundesliga games in a row. They only conceded one goal, there are only six in the entire season according to so-called standard situations. On the other hand, they have already scored 76 goals.
So against the will of Lucien Favre, there can be talk of a true summit next Tuesday (6.30 p.m. live ticker SPIEGEL.de) against leaders FC Bayern. In addition, even if the Swiss coach would like to hear less of this, it is also necessary to talk about the possibility that Borussia Dortmund will become champions.
The defensive organization is right at BVB
Before the season, they had explicitly said in the club that they wanted that. But then came the defeat at Union Berlin, late goals against Frankfurt (2: 2) and Freiburg (2: 2) and the catastrophic first half against SC Paderborn (3: 3). Favre then switched to a three-way defense, which made it better at times. But it took time before the automatisms on the newly formed defensive took effect. At 3: 4 in Leverkusen, the only defeat in the second half of the season, BVB had once again shown such weaknesses on the defensive that even optimists in black and yellow gave up hope in the title fight. Meanwhile, said six victories later, even notorious pessimists like their own boss Hans-Joachim Watzke believe in the chance again – if FC Bayern could be defeated.
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Before the first leg, the Dortmund had announced after a very convincing 3: 0 against Wolfsburg that they would fearlessly go into the duel of the industry leaders. They were then humiliated in the Munich stadium – 0: 4.
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Back then, last November there was a scene during this clear defeat when Mats Hummels patted his chest with both hands at the old workplace and shouted at his colleagues. Even if there was no success there, they had brought him for it. As someone who speaks, even if someone else is wearing the captain’s armband. How Hummels gives the commands can now even be heard, since only a few hundred people have been allowed into the stadiums.
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The central defender, who came back to Dortmund from Munich before the season, is also convincing in terms of sport. In Wolfsburg he won more than 80 percent of his duels. However, he led only a few and had to be replaced in the second half. “Mats has had ailments on the Achilles tendon for some time,” said sports director Michael Zorc about the surprising substitution. “But we hope that he can play again on Tuesday.”
The opposite would be bitter for BVB, because at the beginning of the second half the Dortmund without Hummels briefly lost control of the game. Emre Can, who immediately had to assume the unusual central position in a triple chain after an injury, had understandable problems with getting used to it. The Dortmund team might have conceded the equalizer in the first half of the season, now the wavering phase did not last too long and was ended with the 2: 0 by Achraf Hakimi after a counterattack. BVB has gone through a development.
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Piszczek equipped with a new contract
Against the force of the Munich offensive, Can, winter access from Juventus Turin, would still be a fix. Even if he was originally primarily hired for a position in the rear chain.
There, Lukas Piszczek, who has been very solid for weeks and therefore has a new one-year contract despite his 34 years, has currently secured his place to the right of Hummels. Manuel Akanji is on the left again since Dan-Axel Zagadou’s injury. The Swiss remained without blatant mistakes in Wolfsburg, but lost half of his duels.
Should Hummels fail against Bayern, the championship test for BVB would be much more difficult.
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