Edin Terzic calls him a “child of the Bundesliga”. Julian Brandt is the third-youngest player in the history of the league, which was launched in 1963, to reach the 300-appearance mark.

Julian Brandt was 27 years and 171 days old on Friday. He was 55 days short of the record set by Eike Immel, who made his first 247 Bundesliga appearances in a Borussia Dortmund shirt. When he broke the 300-game barrier – in the colours of VfB Stuttgart – the goalkeeper was 27 years and 116 days old. In second place in this ranking is “Charly” Körbel (Eintracht Frankfurt), who is the Bundesliga’s record player with 602 appearances in total.

Of the 300 figure, Edin Terzic said: “That only happens at this age if you don’t move abroad and steer clear of long-term injuries. Julian is becoming more and more important for us from week to week. He is taking responsibility on the pitch and in the dressing room.” Brandt has consistently been involved in a BVB goal in his last seven Bundesliga appearances (three goals and four assists) and is currently BVB’s top scorer.

“Whomever we face, the fact you see happy faces in the stands and I scored myself completes the package,” Brandt said after the match. The Bremen native scored for the third game in a row against Werder and for the fifth time overall against the club from his home city – only against Hertha has he found the net more often in the Bundesliga.

There were several contributors to the winning goal. Brandt also attributed “a few percentage points” to Felix Nmecha: “He opened up the space. And Emre ultimately spotted it sensationally and played the pass sensationally. It was then important for me to make the right contact and finish well.”
Boris Rupert