In front of an impressive crowd of 25,731, Borussia Dortmund have won 2-1 in a friendly match against 2. Bundesliga team FC St. Pauli at Millerntor in Hamburg. Gonzalo Castro and Adnan Januzaj were the scorers for BVB who had to play without 14 players due to international duty.

Boris Rupert reports from Hamburg

The home side dominated the game right at the start. FC St. Pauli, currently 4th in the 2. Bundesliga, played forward strongly and Subotic had to stretch in order to clear a cross from outside the six yard box out for a corner in the 3rd minute. 

Borussia’s first attack brought with it a 1-0 lead. The ball came over Januzaj and Leitner and landed with Castro who struck perfectly from 17 metres out and took BVB into the lead in the 7th minute. The trio (Januzaj, Leitner and Castro) had the best chances of the first half. The Belgian cleverly got past two St. Pauli players but just missed the top corner in the 12th minute and Leitner’s shot from the edge of the penalty box missed by centimetres only a minute later.

Five minutes later Castro set up Januzaj on the left hand side who moved skillfully with the ball into space. His shot was deflected twice and then hit the back of the net putting the visitors 2-0 ahead. 

And St. Pauli? After a strong start they could have got back into the game in the 10th minute when Zimmermann brought down Thy in the penalty area and referee Ittrich pointed to the spot. Zimmermann being the last man deserved to be sent off but was only shown the yellow card. Thy took the penalty himself and hit the crossbar. 

The substitute Picault did a better job when he received an accurate cross from Dudziak who had just moved from Dortmund to the Hamburg club. He scored with a header reducing the deficit to 2-1 in the 35th minute. At the other end Passlack had the chance to get on the scoresheet after being set up by Januzaj but his long distance shot went over the bar.

It was a very lively friendly in which Weidenfeller was forced into a save in the 53rd minute. The Black and Yellows continued to attack strongly but then faced numerous changes of game flow. Castro missed the opportunity to score a third possible goal for BVB with a long range shot in the 74th minute.

There were great scenes after the game when both teams welcomed the refugees into Germany, 1000 of who were at the match.

BVB: Weidenfeller – Fritsch (84. Flores), Subotic, Zimmermann, Schmelzer (64. Schumacher) – Bender – Leitner (80. Burnic), Castro – Januzaj (64. Serra), Ramos (46. Pulisic), Passlack (69. Larsen)

Goals: 0:1 Castro (7.), 0:2 Januzaj (18.), 1:2 Picault (35.)

Attendance: 25,731