Late Malen winner seals 1-0 victory for BVB

Boris Rupert reporting

Göz Atın

Only Brandt nets for BVB in 1-1 draw with FSV

“The unsatisfying end to an unsatisfactory first half of the season”

Two completely different halves

The 81,365 spectators at a sold-out SIGNAL IDUNA PARK saw a game in which BVB struggled to settle into their stride on a muggy summer evening, with Köln the more dangerous team on their rare forays forward. But Malen got the lucky winning goal in the 88th minute.

The scenario:   
Runners-up against 11th place from last season. Borussia Dortmund ended a Bundesliga season with the best home record for the fifth time in 2022/23 and were unbeaten in 15 home games (13 wins and two draws). Towards the end of the season, 1. FC Köln showed themselves to be a dangerous opponent on the road too: FC picked up a tidy 10 points in the final four away matches.

Personnel matters:   
Adeyemi, Bynoe-Gittens and Nmecha were available again, meaning that only Duranville, Meunier (both muscle fibre tears) and Reyna (fitness training) were missing. It was the same starting line-up that faced Schott Mainz in the DFB-Pokal a week ago (6-1).

Tactics:   
BVB’s 4-2-3-1 formation was not a rigid structure. Sabitzer repeatedly moved one position further forward, while Reus and Brandt covered a broad area. Visitors Köln defended the Dortmund attacks in a 4-5-1 but changed to a 4-2-3-1 when going forward with Kainz frequently switching flanks and providing an option in behind the Dortmund rearguard. Can dropped back between the centre-backs at times throughout the first half, with the wide players then pushing higher up.

The match & analysis:
BVB clearly dictated proceedings (79% possession in the first quarter of an hour) but could not find gaps in Köln’s compact defensive structure. When FC dared to go forward for the first time, they posed a threat: Selke received the ball from Ljubicic 16 metres out and pulled the trigger, only for Süle to come sliding in and deflect the ball, which grazed the bar (17). BVB created their first opportunity after half an hour, with Brandt unleashing a powerful strike in the box that was saved by Schwäbe. Overall, though, the team failed to get any penetration into their play against a passionately defending opponent.

There was initially little change at the start of the second half: Borussia were too slow, too cumbersome, while Köln countered well. In the 55th minute, Kobel used his chest and his foot to stop Adamyan, who had replaced the injured Selke, from making it 1-0. When Borussia did inject pace, Reus had a shot from 22 metres that was kept out by Schwäbe. But the flag was up anyway.

Nmecha and Moukoko came on for Can and Haller, with Adeyemi replacing Reus shortly afterwards. There were 20 minutes left to turn the game in the right direction. But the third and fourth big chances of the match went to the visitors: Ljubicic narrowly missed the target on the follow-up from 18 metres (75). Then Adamyan had a free header on the left of the six-yard box which Kobel saved with his foot (78).

Then, in the 88th minute, BVB won their sixth corner and Brandt took it from the right. Nmecha headed it on and unintentionally set up Malen, who struck the ball against his standing leg while falling on the corner of the six-yard box and it bounced up into the top left corner.

Outlook:
BVB will travel away to VfL Bochum next Saturday. Kick-off is at 15:30 CET.

Teams & goals

Bundesliga Matchday 1
BORUSSIA DORTMUND 1-0 (0-0) 1. FC KÖLN

Bor. Dortmund: Kobel – Ryerson (Hazard, 84), Hummels, Schlotterbeck, Bensebaini (Wolf, 84) – Sabitzer, Can (Nmecha, 59) – Malen, Reus (Adeyemi, 70), Brandt – Haller (Moukoko, 59)
1. FC Köln: Schwäbe – Schmitz, Hübers, Chabot, Paqarada – Carstensen, Ljubicic, Martel, Waldschmidt (Finkgräfe, 66) – Kainz (Olesen, 66) – Selke (Adamyan, 52)
Substitutes: Meyer, Schlotterbeck, Özcan, Bynoe-Gittens – Pentke, Kilian, Pedersen, Christensen, Huseinbasic, Limnios
Goals: 1-0 Malen (Nmecha, 88)
Corners: 6-3 (3-1 at half-time), chance ratio: 2-5 (1-1)
Referee: Aytekin (Oberasbach), yellow cards: Malen
Attendance: 81,365 (sold-out), weather: cloudy with sunny intervals, 26 degrees