Alcácer and Reus seal 2-1 win over strong Bremen side

Boris Rupert reporting

The 81,365 spectators at a sold-out Signal Iduna Park witnessed a high-octane Bundesliga encounter in which the home side race into an early lead thanks to goals from Alcácer (19) and Reus (27). That advantage could have been extended to 3-0 in the ensuing minutes, but instead Bremen halved the deficit before the break through Kruse and the game remained on a knife edge in the second half as BVB squandered several chances to kill off a strong Werder side.

The scenario: 
League leaders BVB went into the top match of Round 15 with the best attacking record (39 goals scored) and the joint-best defensive record (14 goals conceded) in the division. They were up against a Werder Bremen side whose points tally of 21 was almost double what they had at the same stage of last season (11).

Personnel matters: 
BVB boss Lucien Favre made one change to the starting XI that beat FC Schalke 04 2-1 in the derby last time out: having netted twice in the 2-0 victory in Monaco in midweek, Raphael Guerreiro kept his place at the expense of Jakob Bruun Larsen, who along with Dan-Axel Zagadou missed out through injury. However, Thomas Delaney declared himself to be fit in time to face his former club.

Tactics:  
Dortmund lined up in their usual 4-2-3-2 system, while Bremen opted for a 4-4-2 with a diamond-shaped midfield in which ex-BVB man Sahin occupied the sole defensive midfield role. Kruse lined up in the hole behind the two strikers but repeatedly pushed forward to join them, requiring Delaney or Witsel to provide support to the centre-backs and prevent them from being outnumbered. At the other end, Guerreiro looked to cut inside in order to make room for Hakimi to push forward down the left flank, while Piszczek played a more defensive-minded role down the right side.

The match & analysis:
Both teams looked to quickly bypass the midfield and it rapidly became an interesting encounter with lots of chances. BVB had the first opportunity to take the lead when they countered following a Bremen corner, with Guerreiro playing the ball into the path of Alcácer and the Spaniard dinking it over Pavlenka. Klaassen frantically chased the ball back towards the line and touched it onto the post, injuring himself in the process and needing to be substituted. Annoyingly for him, it was all in vain as the linesman adjudged Alcácer to be offside and the goal did not stand (7).

The hosts were again thwarted by the linesman in the 19th minute, with the official incorrectly raising his flag when Alcácer headed home a free-kick from Guerreiro on the right flank. It was only when the video assistant referee intervened that the mistake was corrected and the goal was given. However, an earlier incident that saw Klaassen escape punishment for bundling over Reus in the box was not reviewed (11). BVB became more dominant once they had their noses in front, with Pavlenka denying Alcácer from a narrow angle (17) and Sancho hitting the side-netting (19).

But then, in the 27th minute, a misplaced pass by Bremen was intercepted and Sancho drove into the box from the right. The English youngster looked up and played the ball into the path of Reus, who slotted it into the corner. 2-0! But Werder responded brilliantly and, several minutes after Bürki had spectacularly saved Möhwald's shot, Kruse struck a thunderbolt past the Swiss shot-stopper from 17 metres to make it 2-1 (35). At the other end, Pavlenka clawed Reus' free-kick away from the corner (40) and Langkamp cleared as Guerreiro readied to shoot (44).

The pace became even more frenetic after the break. Bürki denied Kruse (47) and Piszczek thwarted Möhwald (51), while at the other end Sancho struck the side-netting from a narrow angle after Pavlenka had parried Reus' effort into his path (48). Bremen could twice count themselves lucky − in the 55th and 58th minutes − not to fall 3-1 behind after some lovely link-up play between Reus and Alcácer. Then Sancho went clean through but was denied by the Bremen shot-stopper (68), who was called into action seconds later when Delaney had an effort from distance. By this point, the hosts had had twice as many shots as their visitors (16-8).

Bremen piled on the pressure in the closing stages but a BVB counter saw Götze add a third in the sixth minute of stoppage time. The goal was disallowed for offside, but the decision had no impact on the result as the final whistle sounded seconds later.

All the goals and highlights at a click

Outlook: 
Borussia Dortmund will resume their Bundesliga campaign with a trip to Fortuna Düsseldorf on Tuesday evening, before rounding off the 2018 calendar year with a game against Borussia Mönchengladbach on Friday night. Both of those matches will kick off at 20:30 CET.

Teams & goals