Borussia Dortmund's women's footballers have won their opening Landesliga fixture of 2024 2-0 (2-0) away to Spvgg Herten. Top goalscorers Mandy Reinhardt and Marie Grothe sealed the three points with their goals.

The BVB women's footballers have picked up their first three points of the year away to Spvgg Herten and thus cemented their hold on top spot in the Landesliga. Mandy Reinhardt opened the scoring early on following a positional error in the Herten defence (3) – the striker's 20th competitive goal of the season. Herten took a defensive approach with two deep-lying lines. Goalkeeper Ann Kathrin Kessler was protected by a back five and a line of four in front of that. The aim was to avoid a 13-0 like in the reverse fixture. The plan worked: Spvgg didn't offer anything offensively but the defence only allowed long-range shots that posed little danger.

That made Borussia's second goal all the more spectacular: Marie Grothe hammered a free-kick from a centre-left position 27 metres out into the top-right corner – a dream goal (38). It was also the 19th competitive goal of the season for midfield maestro Grothe. "A well-defending opponent made life very difficult for us in a 5-4-1 – but so did we for them. We rarely created any clear-cut chances," reflected coach Thomas Sulewski.

The spectators at the Katzenbusch sports complex were presented with the similar story after the break. The Black & Yellows looked for a gap in the Herten defence, but it was the home team who made the first statement of the second half. Chantal Meißner struck the woodwork with a long-range shot (72). It served as a wake-up call for the league leaders, who further intensified their efforts. However, both Lisa Gomulka and Marjana Naceva failed to beat Herten keeper Kessler, who was in good form, with a long-range shot (78) and a solo run (88) respectively.

"We're back into the league season, we got three points and we're happy about that. However, we were held to a draw in the second half as we were on Thursday and we want to improve upon that significantly in every position in the future," concluded Sulewski. The BVB women will next face BSV Heeren on Sunday 10 March. Kick-off is at 15:00 CET at Stadion Rote Erde. (df)

BVB women: Schröer – Geldschläger, Jung, Haslsteiner, Klemann – Gomulka (Kaul, 80) – Greulich (Kaul, 80), Becker (Tan, 63), Grothe, Tan (Naceva, 63) – Reinhardt

Goals: 1-0 Reinhardt (3), 2-0 Grothe (38)