The Borussia Dortmund U23s came away from their opening home game of the season against a strong Ingolstadt side empty-handed. Coach Christian Preusser's team suffered a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Die Schanzer.

Personnel matters: Coach Christian Preusser made three changes to the starting XI that drew 1-1 in Wiesbaden on the opening day. Soumaila Coulibaly was given the nod over Kolbeinn Finnsson in the left-sided centre-back position. Abdoulaye Kamara replaced the injured Can Özkan, while Prince Aning made his competitive debut for Borussia Dortmund on the left flank. Guillermo Bueno dropped to the bench.

The opposition: Ingolstadt won their opening game at home to promoted SpVgg Bayreuth 1-0. Coach Rüdiger Rehm made three changes to that side, with Funk (goalkeeper), Musliu and Testroet starting in place of Ponath, Antonitsch and Hawkins. The Southern Germans, regarded as promotion candidates by the majority of coaches, were also involved in DFB-Pokal action last Monday. They were on the end of a 3-0 defeat to second-division SV Darmstadt 98.

The match & analysis: BVB dominated proceedings at the outset and put together some nice link-up play without truly threatening the opposition goal. Ingolstadt did not register a single attempt in the opening 30 minutes but the visitors eventually seized the initiative. However, the first attempt was headed well over Luca Unbehaun's goal by Schröck from 11 metres out.

But two minutes later, Schmidt steered an unstoppable header into the bottom right corner of the goal to give Ingolstadt the lead. The goalscorer was then brought down by Dortmund's shot-stopper shortly before the interval, with Testroet slotting home the resultant penalty to put the side relegated from the second tier last season 2-0 up at the break.

BVB started brightly after the break. Ole Pohlmann teed up Michael Eberwein, only for an opposition defender to get a leg in the way and thwart the attempt. After that, the visitors were back in the ascendancy. Testroet's shot from distance struck the inside of the post (50), before Röhl all-but wrapped up the victory with an – admittedly stunning – volley from the edge of the penalty area that put Ingolstadt three goals to the good in the 53rd minute.

While BVB were visibly shocked, the Bavarians kept up their lethal finishing: Sarpei prodded a low cross over the line and into the net to make it 4-0 in the 66th minute. Luca Unbehaun then made a strong save (73), before Antonios Papadopoulos made a block to stop the margin of defeat from increasing even further (75). Papadopoulos went for goal from distance on the stroke of full-time but there was to be no consolation goal for Borussia.

Christian Preusser: "Ingolstadt's victory was completely deserved. The first 25 minutes were okay. But going 1-0 down knocked the stuffing out of us a bit. We lacked structure after that. That should of course not happen to us. Now we have to dust ourselves down. But I'd like to highlight the support from the stands. That was really super and cannot be taken for granted with a result like this."

BVB U23s: Unbehaun – Coulibaly, Dams, Papadopoulos – Aning (Bueno, 55), Kamara, Pfanne (Hober, 79), Semic (Elongo-Yombo, 64) – Eberwein, Fink (Michel, 64), Pohlmann (Broschinski, 78)

Goals: 0-1 Schmidt (32), 0-2 Testroet (45), 0-3 Röhl (55), 0-4 Sarpei (66)

Outlook: Our U23s are back in action again on Wednesday 10/08/2022 when they travel to 1. FC Saarbrücken. Kick-off at Ludwigspark is at 19:00 CET.