After their first two friendlies in Hamm (7-0) and Oberhausen (3-2), BVB put in an appearance for their fans in Thuringia on Saturday afternoon and beat Regionalliga outfit FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt 2-1 (0-1) in a pre-season clash watched by 16,724 spectators at a sold-out Steigerwaldstadion thanks to late goals from Hazard and Wolf.

Boris Rupert reporting from Erfurt

With the exception of Niklas Süle (infection), Karim Adeyemi (fitness training), Mateu Morey and Soumaila Coulibaly (muscular problems) plus the injured duo of Gio Reyna and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, everyone had boarded the plane for the third pre-season friendly. Two days prior to departing for the USA, Ramy Bensebaini made his debut in a BVB shirt; Felix Nmecha stated the match among the substitutes.

The two-time champions of former East Germany sat deep with two compact banks in a 5-4-1 formation and looked to counter-attack quickly after winning back the ball. BVB, in a 4-1-2-3 formation, were clearly in the ascendancy from the beginning and created their first chances through Brandt (6) and Malen (11), both of which were thwarted by RWE keeper Schellenberg. The home side’s tactics came off for the first time when they hit Borussia on the counter after 22 minutes. The hosts’ attack seemed to be over following Özcan’s energetic intervention in the box, but the Black & Yellows could not bring the ball under control and that allowed Elva to slot home for 1-0 from a centre-right position 11 metres out. Overall, Dortmund’s play was lacking tempo and purpose – which could to some degree be explained by their intensive training programme.

Eight new players were introduced ahead of the second period – in which Meyer, who had replaced Kobel in goal, thwarted a possible opposition goal early on. Only Hummels, Schlotterbeck and Reus kept their places. Hazard narrowly missed out on equalising at 1-1 after energetically winning the ball back (51). There was an even closer chance five minutes later when a great pass found Moukoko, who turned quickly and shot only for an Erfurt player to block it with his foot. Reus struck the side-netting with a free-kick from 17 metres out (58). The phases of play where tempo was injected swiftly led to goalscoring opportunities.

A counter-attack initiated by Bamba saw parity restored at 1-1 with 10 minutes to go. Hazard tapped Moukoko’s cross from the right flank over the goal-line. Wolf, who had been denied by the keeper shortly beforehand, fired home a low effort from 12 metres in the 86th minute to make it 2-1.

BVB: Kobel (Meyer, 46) – Meunier (Wolf, 46), Hummels (Collins, 76), Schlotterbeck (Papadopoulos, 76), Bensebaini (Ryerson, 46) – Özcan (Can, 46) – Reus (Pohlmann, 66), Brandt (Nmecha, 46) – Duranville (Bamba, 46; Besong, 82), Haller (Moukoko, 46), Malen (Hazard, 46)
Goals: 1-0 Elva (23), 1-1 Hazard (81), 1-2 Wolf (86)

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