Borussia Dortmund travelled to Mannheim for a friendly against fourth-division SV Waldhof on Tuesday, three days after losing their opening Bundesliga match against Leverkusen and three days ahead of their away match at Augsburg. In front of a crowd of 21,327, the Black and Yellows cruised to a 4-0 (1-0) thanks to goals from Immobile, Stenzel, Reus and Özbek.

Boris Rupert reporting from Mannheim

With all proceeds from this “charity match” going to the fourth-division side, the friendly at SV Waldhof Mannheim had been set up between the first and second match of the season to give Borussia Dortmund’s World Cup players returning late to pre-season a chance for some playing time. A number of BVB players, however, were unable to take advantage of it. Apart from Kirch (torn thigh muscle), Ji, Schmelzer (strained muscle), Sahin (inflamed knee), Ramos (sprained knee) and Gündogan (rehab after back surgery), BVB were without Bender and Hummels (both muscle problems) who were omitted for precautionary reasons.

Weidenfeller was back in goal for the first time since the cup final on 17 May, and Ginter played in a holding midfield role alongside Jojic in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Hofmann starting in an attacking midfield position.

Borussia took charge of the contest from the start, but were lucky not to fall behind on 27 minutes when Straub broke into the box following a counter attack but his shot went just high. At the other end, Jojic (21 mins) and Immobile (27 mins) were both denied by Mannheim’s keeper Broll.

In pouring rain, Ginter made some good tackles and runs in midfield, one them leading to BVB’s opening goal when he set up the lively Mkhitaryan who played the ball into space for Immobile to run onto and the BVB striker then rounded the Mannheim keeper to slot homee (32 mins.).

BVB made five changes at the interval, with Langerak, Hornschuh, Sarr, Aubameyang and Reus replacing Weidenfeller, Piszczek, Sokratis, Jojic and Mkhitaryan. Jürgen Klopp made another five substitutions at the hour mark, while Subotic played 71 minutes before he was taken off. Mannheim had two great chances to level the match, first Langerak did well to claw a Sökler shot away for a corner which - played short – landed on the top of the crossbar (57 mins.).  BVB’s first chance in the second half came in the 69th minute when Reus went close with a shot through the crowd that just missed the target. A minute later, after a series of blocked shots, the ball fell at the feet of Stenzel and BVB’s under-19 player fired a deflected shot into the net for BVB’s second goal. Aubameyang could have gotten BVB’s third but was denied by the post on 77 minutes.

Reus then crashed a free-kick from the left of the area into the net before Özbek scored a poacher’s tap-in a minute later to seal the match 4-0.

BVB: Weidenfeller (46. Langerak) – Piszczek (46. Hornschuh), Subotic (71. Camoglu), Sokratis (46. Sarr), Knystock (59. Durm) – Jojic (46. Aubameyang), Ginter (59. Kehl) – Mkhitaryan (46. Reus), Hofmann (59. Stenzel), Großkreutz (59. Sauerland) – Immobile (59. Özbek)
Goals: 0-1 Immobile (32.), 0-2 Stenzel (70.), 0-3 Reus (84.), 0-4 Özbek (85.)
Attendance: 21,327