BVB take ‘09 steps’ forward, and show their “true colours“

For 80 minutes, Borussia totally dominated their opposition at SGL-Arena, with their pressing and transition game much improved from the week before. The midfield pairs of Reus/Grosskreutz and Joijic/ Mkhitaryan waited patiently for their chances to hit on the break, while Neven Subotic, who made his return from injury on Friday, was solid in defence. BVB’s 3-0 lead through the early goals from Reus (11 mins) and Sokratis (14 mins.) as well as Ramos (78 mins.) in the second half was just a logical consequence. Augsburg may have enjoyed more possession (53 percent) and won more tackles (53 percent), up to the 80th minute they had only created one chance of note, a 37th-minute effort from Djurdjic.

BVB lost their focus towards the end

“Up to that point we had played very well,” said Jürgen Klopp in the post-match press conference, while Sebastian Kehl talked about a “very, very good game” by BVB for 70 minutes. For some inexplicable reason, an as usual hard-running BVB side (125 km to Augsburg’s 119) lost their focus after Ramos’ debut goal. “We just played poor football, were not determined enough and lost too many second balls,” said Marco Reus who put in an impressive performance against Augsburg following his return from a two-and-a-half month injury lay-off (partial ligament tear in his left ankle).

“We dropped the pace, were not committed enough and stopped defending,” said Subotic about the closing minutes when Augsburg took advantage of BVB’s passiveness to pull two back through Bobadilla (82 mins.) and Matavz (89.). “We know we allowed them too much space and time in the final 30 minutes, and we have to work on it. But we have also only played two games, so those kind of things can happen,” said Roman Weidenfeller.

BVB may have been given a scare late on but, considering their 22 shots on goal to home side’s 12, it was still a deserved win for them. Jürgen Klopp was pleased with his side after their fifth win from sixth Bundesliga meetings with FCA, saying: “Once again after a game in Augsburg I feel that we have achieved a very good result here and other teams will surely struggle here too.”

“We need to improve further“

Sebastian Kehl summed up the game saying, “We need to improve further, but we took a step forward.” In the Bundesliga table, BVB even took “09 steps” forward to climb to eighth place, only one point off FC Bayern. Neven Subotic: “It would have been close to a disaster had we lost in Augsburg, now we have two quiet weeks ahead of us before we take on SC Freiburg.”

BVB’s injury problems could ease a bit ahead of the match against Freiburg. More than a year after his last Bundesliga game (9 August 2013), Ilkay Gündogan returned to full training on Saturday. Ji and Schmelzer (both muscle strains) as well as Hummels and Blaszczykowski (both match fitness) are expected to be available for selection again after the international break.