Borussia Dortmund find themselves in the bottom instead of the top third of the table as their poor run of results in the Bundesliga continues. However, the 1-0 defeat at home to Hannover was not as bad as the result suggests.

For more than an hour BVB picked up where they left off against Galatasaray in midweek in the Champions League, putting on a solid defensive display - with one exception when Piscszek lost track of Bittencourt in the sixth minute - and launching attack after attack on the Hannover goal.

They had plenty of opportunities to put the game to bed early on, but despite dominating the match and enjoying chance after chance they were unable to find the back of the net, either missing by a whisker - as Reus (20/ 47 mins), Aubameyang (24) or Ramos (76) did - or being denied by Zieler. Hannover’s goalkeeper rescued his team on a number of occasions on Saturday against Mkhitaryan (12 mins), Hummels (18) and Reus (55), prompting him to say, “I was kept really busy today.”

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“It was the same old story. We had seven, eight good chances to go in front but didn’t take them,” Hummels rued after the game, while Jürgen Klopp counted “four or five clear-cut chances” from his team. But the Dortmund coach was also quick to acknowledge, “We were made to work very hard. The opponent made a lot out of little, we made nothing out of a lot.”

The key moment of the match came in the 61st minute when Ilkay Gündogan went after the ball in front of the area, getting a touch on it first before hitting the foot of Bittencourt. “My foot cannot vanish into thin air, can it? I don’t think it was a foul,” said Gündogan, a sentiment shared by Sven Bender who said, “Ilkay clearly got to the ball first.” Referee Tobias Stieler, however, had a different opinion and awarded Hannover a free-kick and Gündogan a yellow card. Hannover’s Kiyotake stepped up and curled an unstoppable shot past Weidenfeller to put the visitors into an undeserved lead with what was Hannover’s first attempt on target for 55 minutes.

Hummel said, “We could have won 3-0 or 4-0 had we taken our chances. Instead, we conceded a goal from a free-kick which wasn’t one in my opinion.” The goal clearly rocked the home side. “We were ragged in the first few minutes after the goal, and then we were unable to create any incisive openings,” the Dortmund skipper admitted.

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Neven Subotic

Not only did Borussia Dortmund fail to score for the fourth time this season, they also lost their fourth consecutive match in the Bundesliga. The last time they had such a run was in the 1999/2000 season under coach Bernd Krauss when they even lost six straight between March 12th and April 11th.

“We have never been in a situation like this before, and we have to come to terms with it. We've ended up empty-handed again and we don't really know why,” said Sven Bender. Mats Hummels acknowledged, “This is the most difficult time that any of us has ever faced. But we can learn from it. But we must also admit that it will be difficult to reach our targets for the season.”

“No one is going to help us, we have to sort this out alone”

Speaking at the post-match conference, Jürgen Klopp said, “We will continue to talk about, look at and analyse things. We did some things better than in the previous games, but not good enough to win the match. It’s totally normal that we are criticised when we have performed badly. No one is going to help us, we have to sort this out alone.”

With seven points from 10 games – the worst start to a season since 1985 – BVB are finding themselves in the bottom half of the Bundesliga table for the time being. A relegation battle, however, is not on the agenda, “Unless we have a run of 30 poor games, which I believe to be impossible,” so Hummels.

BVB face four teams from the top six

Looking at the upcoming fixtures, the pressure will be building for BVB. Next Saturday, they travel to Bayern (1st), a week later they host Borussia Mönchengladbach (3rd) at Signal Iduna Park. In December they will be facing another two teams from the current top six in Hoffenheim (2nd) and Wolfsburg (6th), with Paderborn (8th), Frankfurt (11th), Hertha BSC (13th) and Werder Bremen (18th) completing the list until the end of the year.

But first things first, the next hurdle to navigate is a trip to FC St. Pauli. “We have to get back to playing football for the entire 90 minutes. That must be our goal,” said Sven Bender. Jürgen Klopp added, “We have to keep fighting, there is no alternative.”