Borussia Dortmund suffered a 2-1 (0-1) defeat at the hands of VfL Wolfsburg on Saturday afternoon. In a hard-fought match, a superb free-kick from Marco Reus was not enough to grab any points against a hard-battling home side who also had the woodwork on their side.

image

Dennis-Julian Gottschlich reporting
 
 A capacity crowd of 30,000 at Volkswagen Arena saw a cautious BVB side that could have fallen behind twice in the first half to efforts from Perisic (22 mins.) and Arnold (32) before taking the lead through a fantastic free-kick from Marco Reus (45 mins.). Wolfsburg turned the game around after the interval with goals from Rodriguez (56 mins.) and Olic (69).

The Scenario:
 Second-placed Borussia Dortmund travelled to Wolfsburg not having lost any of their previous four matches there, scoring at least three goals in the process (3-3, 3-1, 3-0, 3-1). The hosts, following a rocky start to the season, went into the game on the back of a three-game winning streak, but had only won one of their previous eight meetings with BVB (a 3-2 win last season).

image

Personnel Matters:
 Jürgen Klopp was (still) without long-term casualties Piszczek and Gündogan, and also had to do without Blaszczykowski (stomach bug) who was replaced by Aubameyang in the starting line-up, with Hummels returning to the team after missing the Champions League tie against Arsenal. Diego was a big-name absentee for Wolfsburg. Also not available for the hosts were Felipe (ankle), Träsch (foot), Koo (ankle) and Vierinha (knee).
 
 Tactics:
 Wolfsburg coach Dieter Heckiing utilised a 4-2-3-1 formation to match the system used by Jürgen Klopp, with Medojevic and Gustavo in the two holding positions in midfield where the lively Ochs caused some problems on the right, while Olic laboured in the lone striker´s role.

image

The Game & Analysis:
 In was a balanced start to the game at Volkswagen Arena with both teams looking to find a foothold in the game. The opening stages saw some disciplined defensive work from both sides, but very few scoring opportunities, little flow and lots of misplaced passing, especially in the last third.
 
 BVB still looked a bit more dangerous, with Hummels having the first opening of the game when he got his head to a free-kick from Sahin but could not steer the ball on target from four yards (5 mins). The second chance fell to Aubameyang five minutes later when he burst into the box from the left after picking up a long ball from Lewandowski and shrugging off Wolfsburg defender Knoche only to see his shot go just wide of the right-hand post.
 
 Wolfsburg´s main threat came from the right. In the eighth minute, Weidenfeller did well to punch the ball away ahead of Olic after a free-kick from Rodriguez before two crosses from Ochs caused danger in the BVB defence. The first one found Perisic who rose well to beat Grosskreutz to the ball but his header went wide (22 mins.), and the second one was met by Arnold with a sideways scissors kick that also went just wide (32 mins.).

Shortly before the halftime whistle, Subotuc picked up an injury following a tackle and had to be substituted. He was replaced by Sokratis who was barely on the pitch when Mkhitaryan was fouled 18 yards out, with Reus taking the resulting free-kick and firing the ball over the wall into the left-hand corner to send the 4,000 travelling BVB fans into ecstasy (45 + 2 mins).

Borussia started the second half well and could have taken a two-goal lead on 54 minutes when Aubameyang steered his shot agonisingly wide of the left-hand post after a fine combination play involving Lewandowski and Mkhitaryan. At the other end, Rodriguez was more fortunate two minutes later when his free-kick from 30 yards sailed past everyone and into Weidenfeller´s net to make it 1-1.
 
 And things got worse for Borussia as 10 minutes later Olic was sent down the left wing where he feinted past Schmelzer before unleashing an unstoppable strike from the right edge of the box into the left corner via the post to put the hosts in front (69 mins.). The Black ´n´ Yellows could have been back on level terms almost immediately when Lewandowski was fouled at the edge of the box three minutes later, with Reus stepping up again, but this time he could only hit the crossbar with his effort (73 mins.) - so unlucky for BVB!
 
 Jürgen Klopp brought on Hofmann and Duksch in a bid to inject more attacking impetus, but the Wolves fought for their lives and worked hard in defence to deny Borussia further scoring opportunities. Following a counter attack, Perisic even had a chance to make it 3-1 but his effort flew just over (83 mins.).

Prospects:
 The Bundesliga heads into an international break. In two weeks´ time, on Saturday 23 November (KO: 1830 CET), Borussia Dortmund take on Bayern Munich in a top-of-the-table-clash at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK.