When the Borussia Dortmund players walked to the team bus after the match against Freiburg, their faces looked tired - but also happy. After a tough and exhausting match, they came away with three points against Sportclub. It was, according to Jürgen Klopp, “a fortunate, but not undeserved” victory. Nuri Sahin just said, “We won. That’s all that matters.”

They were basically both admitting that it was a hard-fought win for BVB. The game was a dour affair marked by “a lot of little mistakes that made life difficult for us”, as Julian Schieber put it, with little flow and “not easy to watch for the fans”, according to Sebastian Kehl who scored the winning goal with a stunning effort.

At the post-match press conference Jürgen Klopp still wasn’t sure whether it was a deliberate effort from his skipper or not. It was, Kehl later confirmed. “Everybody knows that Oliver Baumann stands quite a long way off his line, and I saw him doing that a few times during the game, so I let fly, but of course it also takes some luck,” is how the Dortmund captain described his goal. It was a perfect curling shot and Kehl’s first goal in the Bundesliga in almost two years. His last had come in April 2012 when he tapped in a rebound to put BVB 2-1 up against Schalke.

It was an important goal at the time and secured a derby win. A glance at the table confirms that the 1-0 victory over Freiburg could also prove to become an important one as it has helped the Schwarzgelben to open up a four-point cushion over Leverkusen and Schalke. In the battle for second place, that goal could make all the difference in the final standings at the end of the season.

Sunday’s scorer was understandably delighted about his goal, but he also had some kind words on SC Freiburg where he started his professional career before moving to Dortmund in 2002. “I’m very happy about the goal, but I also hope that it doesn’t make the difference for Freiburg at the end of the season. I still have a lot of sympathy for this club.”

His teammates were more interested in praising their captain. “It was an unstoppable strike from Kehli,” said Kevin Grosskreutz with a broad smile on his face, while Mats Hummels chanted “wonder goal, wonder goal!” when passing by in the mixed zone. Before he boarded the bus, Kehl returned the “compliment” with wink, saying, “Mats Hummels has shown me in training how to do it.”