The Borussia Dortmund U23s welcomed SV Lippstadt to Dortmund-Brackel on Matchday 31 of the Regionalliga West. The match got off to a high-tempo start, with BVB going in ahead at the interval via Lennard Maloney's goal just shy of the quarter-hour mark. Lippstadt played with slightly more urgency in the second half, but BVB killed the game through Kolbeinn Finnsson's 90th-minute goal and deservedly won 2-0 in the end.

The scenario: The Black & Yellows had maintained their four-point lead at the summit courtesy of their 1-1 draw with Essen in midweek. Their visitors were battling relegation but had beaten Alemannia Aachen 2-0 during the week.

Personnel matters: Marco Hober was back in the starting XI following suspension, while Taylan Duman returned to the line-up having made his comeback against Essen. Patrick Osterhage, Moritz Broschinski, Florian Krebs and Maximilian Hippe were all injured. Tobi Raschl and Ansgar Knauff were with the first team for the match against 1. FC Cologne.

The match & analysis: It took only 35 seconds for BVB to have their first shot. Richmond Tachie set up Steffen Tigges, who showed no hesitation but had his effort from a tight angle kept out by goalkeeper Balkenhoff. BVB made an explosive start and had several additional opportunities to take an early lead in the opening stages. The best chance of the game so far fell to Steffen Tigges, who latched on to a Tachie cross but put the ball several centimetres wide of the mark – though the centre-forward was probably offside when the cross was played.

The Black & Yellows invested a great deal and threatened the Lippstadt goal almost on a minutely basis. Dominik Wanner went clean through after 12 minutes but could not find the back of the net. The follow-up fell to Steffen Tigges, whose attempt was cleared for a corner. The set-piece initially did not look like it would come to anything, but Steffen Tigges kept the play alive with a ball across the face of goal. Lennard Maloney was in the right place at the back post and headed home the deserved opener almost entirely unimpeded. It was the defender's first goal of the season.

The visitors from Lippstadt were mostly chasing the play and had no chances whatsoever. BVB were extremely dominant and covered a lot of ground. Even though they did not create any clear-cut chances towards the end of the first half, it was a really outstanding opening period. The Black & Yellows did not make any changes ahead of the second 45 minutes – either in terms of personnel or approach. Steffen Tigges fired the ball narrowly wide on the 49-minute mark.

The visitors went down to 10 men shortly afterwards, with Simon Schubert handed a second yellow card following a discussion with the referee in the 55th minute. Enrico Maaßen made his first substitution on the hour-mark, with U21 EURO participant Kolbeinn Finnsson replacing Alaa Bakir in the No. 10 role. BVB were lacking their usual composure on the ball at this stage. Despite being a man down, Lippstadt grew stronger and had chances too. Maaßen intervened again and brought on Philipp Harlass and Aday Ercan for Richmond Tachie and Marco Hober.

BVB sought to put the game to bed but did not play with as much purpose in the final third as they had in the opening half. The game became more hectic, its flow disrupted by lots of minor fouls. Lippstadt threw everything forward again and went all out for an equaliser. Kolbeinn Finnsson had a great chance to score in the 87th minute but missed from a centre-left position. The Icelander did better three minutes later, though. After being teed up by Steffen Tigges, he made it 2-0 – the final score – from an unmarked position. BVB stay top of the Regionalliga West with a four-point lead.  

The match reactions:

Ingo Preuß: "The goal for 2-0 came late on. The lads battled their way through it. That's what we generally call grinding out a win. For me, every opponent in the Regionalliga West is strong. We saw that once again today, Lippstadt made things very difficult for us. Winning the game is all that counted."

Enrico Maaßen: "We started with a very high intensity. Before the goal for 1-0, we already had two point-blank scoring opportunities. Lippstadt are a team that want to play football. They did that well. We knew it was going to be a tough task today. We wanted to kill the game quickly, but we didn't succeed. That made for a very intense game for us again, but we did very well."

Lennard Maloney: "I didn't know what I should do for the goal celebration. You could see that it doesn't happen too often. I was obviously absolutely delighted with the goal. I'm proud that I was able to contribute to the win."

Steffen Tigges: "First and foremost, of course, we're obviously satisfied with the result. We knew that we had a difficult game ahead of us. The match on Wednesday consumed a lot of energy, because we gave it everything. We wanted to continue in that vein today and we managed that too. We had lots of counter-attacking situations but we were a bit sloppy. We should've dominated the game more after the red card. Nonetheless, we're satisfied and we're delighted with the three points."

Henri Weigelt: "We had the game well under control at the start and were in it from the off. The goal played into our hands. But Lippstadt also played good football today. But when we made it 2-0, that was game over."

Outlook: BVB are next in action when they visit Bonner SC on Wednesday. Kick-off at Sportpark Nord is at 17:00 CET.

Team & goals

BVB U23s: Unbehaun, Maloney, Hober (Ercan, 75), Bakir (Finnsson, 60), Duman (Bah-Traore, 90), Tachie (Harlass, 69), Weigelt, Tigges, Pfanne, Dams, Wanner

Goals: 1-0 Maloney (13), 2-0 Finnsson (90)

Noteworthy incidents: Red card for Simon Schubert (57)