Borussia Dortmund beat MSV Duisburg 6-1 (5-1) in their last friendly ahead of the Bundesliga restart on Saturday. A crowd of 24,355 at the Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena provided a great atmosphere for the game, billed as “Hosting the Champions”, in which BVB helped the neighbouring club financially. Playing some high-tempo football, the Black n Yellows romped to an easy win.

Borussia travelled without Gündogan, Hummels, Subotic and also Weidenfeller to Duisburg where traffic problems near the stadium (BVB’s bus was stuck in traffic) caused the kick-off to be delayed by 30 minutes. Completely unfazed by it, BVB took charge of the contest from the off and took the lead after only eight minutes when Mkhitaryan was sent through from the half way line by Lewandowski before squaring the ball for Aubameyang in the centre who slotted home an easy finish past MSV keeper Ratajczak.

Borussia continued to press and dominate possession, and they also made the most of their second chance of the game. This time it was Aubameyang who took the ball down the right wing with a 40-yard sprint to the edge of the Duisburg box before finding Reus in the centre who flicked the ball through to Lewandowski and the Polish striker made no mistake and coolly slotted home from 12 yards to put BVB 2-0 up (16 mins.).

Aubameyang und Mhkitaryan feiern das 1:0. [Fotos: firo]
Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan celebrate the opening goal. [pictures: firo]

The visitors then dropped down a gear, though they remained a threat as Sahin went close on 30 minutes with a strike from 20 yards that hit the post.  Mhkitaryan, unmarked on the left of the area, made it 3-0 a few minutes later, slotting the ball into the bottom right corner (37 mins.). The Armenian scored his second goal of this night three minutes later with a shot from the inside right, before Lewandowski added a fifth for BVB with a drop kick from the edge of the area (42 mins.).

It was a perfect half by BVB, at least attacking-wise as shortly before the interval Duisburg pulled one back with their first chance of the game when an Onuegbu effort from 18 yards took a deflection to leave Langerak stranded (45 mins.).

Apart from Langerak, Jürgen Klopp changed the whole team at halftime and this new set of players tried to pick up where their teammates left off before the break. Kuba went close when his shot went just over after a fine solo run (66 mins.), before Schieber made it 6-1 a minute later when he rounded the goalkeeper and stroked home from a tight angle after collecting a perfect cross from Bender.

BVB 1st half:  Langerak - Großkreutz, Friedrich, Günter, Schmelzer - Sahin, Kehl - Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan, Reus - Lewandowski.
BVB 2nd half:  Langerak - Piszczek, Sokratis, Sarr, Durm - Bender, Kirch - Blaszczykowski, Hofmann, Duksch - Schieber.
Goals:  0-1 Aubameyang (8.), 0-2 Lewandowski (16.), 0-3 Mkhitaryan (37.), 0-4 Mkhitaryan (40.), 0-5 Lewandowski (42.), 1-5 Onuegbu (45.), 1-6 Schieber (67.)
Attendance: 24,355.