In a thrilling afternoon of football, Borussia Dortmund smashed RB Leipzig 4-1.
Leipzig took the lead after taking advantage of some defensive naivete, but Dortmund fired back with four unanswered goals to get a big win on the Bundesliga’s opening night. What did we learn?
1. Dortmund’s defence will need time
The circumstances surrounding Leipzig’s opening goal against Dortmund will largely be forgotten due to the result of the match and the nature of the home side’s comeback, but it really shouldn’t be because it pinpoints a weakness that could be exploited by Dortmund’s opponents, for a while anyway.
Of course Dortmund’s defence now has the personnel to become quite formidable. Axel Witsel and Thomas Delaney will form a great defensive screen whilst Manuel Akanji and Abdou Diallo are superb centre-backs, but they’re young and will need time to find their rhythm and the opening goal showed it.
The game was barely 30 seconds old when they panicked trying to deal with a long ball sent into their area. First they swapped sides which is always a bad idea, then Akanji effected a terrible clearance that put the ball back into the danger zone. Akanji pushed up to try and recover the ball but ended up being so far out of position that when Leipzig clipped the ball over him, his attempt to block it only headed it on into the path of Jean-Kevin Augustin. Meanwhile Diallo had seen his partner push up and didn’t do the same, meaning that Augustin wasn’t offside as he ran in behind to clip it home.
2. Dahoud reunited and reinvigorated
Mahmoud Dahoud was one of the brightest young talents when playing for Borussia Monchengladbach under Lucien Favre; though he struggled to impose himself after moving to Dortmund. But now Lucien Favre is in charge of Dortmund the pair are reunited; and Dahoud’s display against Leipzig was a clear example that he will return to that greatness.
Dahoud was everywhere in Favre’s 4-3-3, very much in a good way. He was always able to shuttle back and help out defensively but when Dortmund had the ball he was able to carry it forward with ease, drifting by opponents and then playing smart forward passes.
That’s what he did 20 minutes in, playing the ball out wide to Max Philipp who moved it on to Marcel Schmelzer. The veteran sent a cross in and Dahoud, full of confidence, had carried on his run and made the most astounding header, contorting his body to make contact and guide the ball into the back of the net for 1-1.
It’s also what he did in stoppage time, neatly intercepting a Leipzig pass then dribbling by an opponent before playing a perfectly weighted forward pass for Jadon Sancho who then found Marco Reus to make it 4-1. It was the perfect end to what should be the beginning of Mahmoud Dahoud’s best Bundesliga season yet.
3. Leipzig need a leader
If Dortmund thought their centre-backs were young, RB Leipzig rocked up to the Westfalenstadion with two 19 year-old centre-backs. Obviously Dayot Upamecano and Ibrahim Konate are both phenomenal prospects, but their lack of experience was achingly telling all through the game.
Konate was constantly pushing up, trying to be aggressive, and getting caught out as a result. Upamecano was the better of the two but even he was making rash decisions that should have cost Leipzig more than it did. The pair both look like they would benefit from having a veteran (Willie Orban, perhaps) partnering them; which is what may happen next season when Julien Nagelsmann and his back three come to manage Leipzig. Until then, however, some rotation will be needed.
4. Axel Witsel is a gamechanger
Borussia Dortmund are a side most closely associated with young players. They are the go-to destination for young talent at the high-end of European football. Very few sides can develop players as regularly and effectively as Dortmund do, and that informs their transfer activity.
So when they spent money to bring 29 year-old Axel Witsel into the club, eyebrows were raised. This signing seemed to run contrary to their ethos, but Lucien Favre knows what he’s doing.
Witsel was essential and we saw that against Leipzig where he absolutely dominated in the middle of the park, imposing himself physically alongside Thomas Delaney to protect his defenders. He also stepped up and scored a supreme overhead kick from close range to make it 3-1, a goal on his Bundesliga debut after last week bagging a last-minute goal on his full club debut.
Witsel is a born winner and a ceaseless competitor. Those are qualities that Dortmund’s young magicians need to have around them in order to thrive. This makes the Belgian a crucial signing.
5. Jadon Sancho made the right call
Eyebrows were raised when Jadon Sancho chose to leave Manchester City and head out to Borussia Dortmund. Many took this as him being impatient, and perhaps he was – but as his displays with Dortmund have shown he was absolutely right to be impatient; he is ready to play now.
No Borussia Dortmund player has provided more Bundesliga assists (5) since the start of last season than Jadon Sancho.
He made his full debut in January this year.
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Sancho has been used a fair amount, and today against Leipzig he came off the bench with 15 minutes left in the game. Seconds later he won the ball back and played a dangerous ball into the box. And then in stoppage time when Mahmoud Dahoud set him free, he took a touch and then weighted a perfect through-ball into the box, allowing captain Marco Reus to make it 4-1.
That was Sancho’s fifth assist in the Bundesliga, which is the most of any Dortmund player since the start of 2017/18. What makes this more incredible is that Sancho only debuted in January 2018. And what is yet even more impressive is that that? This was Sancho’s second stoppage time assist for Reus this season; because in the season opener guess who popped up to create the Dortmund captain’s last minute extra time winner? Yup, Jadon Sancho.
The post Reunited and it feels so good: Dahoud-Favre duo fires Dortmund to opening Bundesliga win appeared first on Squawka News.
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