It was a battle cry from the 1980s that was started up by the South Stand. The whole stadium joined in once Borussia Dortmund had seen a 4-0 home victory against Eintracht Frankfurt over the line, one week after their disappointing 3-3 stalemate in Stuttgart and three weeks after losing pole position in the table and exiting the cup. “BVB are back again!” sang the crowd. The situation could not have been summed up better.

The stadium certainly played a major role in the win on Saturday. Mainz levelling at 1-1 against Bayern Munich 95 minutes before kick-off in this match was met with quiet celebrations by the fans who were already in their seats, while the goal for 2-1 eight minutes later sent a murmur through the crowd – “will Bayern actually drop points today?” – and the goal for 3-1 was celebrated frenetically.

The goal for 3-1 came as the team bus turned into Strobelallee at 17:09 CET and drove the final few metres up to SIGNAL IDUNA PARK. “Marco said to me on the bus already that the stadium would go crazy today,” Karim Adeyemi later told BVB TV as he relayed a conversation with Reus in the seat next to him. Julian Brandt revealed: “I’d be lying if I said we don’t care at all about what happens elsewhere. The result gave a little push. We had the 18:30 CET game, it was set up for us.”

And that’s how it turned out. 73,665 BVB supporters (the 7,700 away fans had other interests) carried their team through the warm-up and what was – despite every effort – a dogged opening phase. The first shot at goal in the game only came in the 14th minute when Donyell Malen took a free-kick. But then came the chances – and the Black & Yellows were once again in clinical mood, scoring the three goals that paved the way for victory between 18:49 and 19:11 through Jude Bellingham, Malen and Mats Hummels to lead 3-0 at half-time. Malen’s goal to round off the scoring at 4-0 was BVB’s 41st goal since the winter break; no other team has passed the 30-goal mark in 2023.

“We’re satisfied with the performance and with the result too. But it’s only a step that we’ve taken,” said Edin Terzic as he reflected on an emotional evening of football. There are still five games to go: away to Bochum, at home to Wolfsburg and Gladbach, away to Augsburg and at home to Mainz. “The victory feels very good. This is how we need to play if we want to be top come the end,” declared sporting director Sebastian Kehl, who added: “The table looks very good now. We’ve won an important game, but we must stay cool and won’t get caught up in excessive euphoria.”
Boris Rupert