Bundesliga
"Close the gap to two points!"
Borussia Dortmund had made up six points on VfL Wolfsburg in two matches and more than halved the gap from eleven to five points. The hopes of getting even closer to the team currently lying third in the table on Wednesday evening – and thus immediately before the sides go head to head this Saturday – did not materialise.
Both teams got the job done. BVB won 2-0 against Union Berlin, while VfL won 3-1 away at VfB Stuttgart.
"After the match against Frankfurt (editor's note: 1-2 on 3 April) it didn't look like we could get back there again," coach Edin Terzic said, adding: "Now we are within four points of fourth place, five of third place, and we are playing in Wolfsburg so can close that gap to two points. That is the way we want to approach the game. To do that, we need an extremely good performance."
A lack of concentration in the opening stages, as was evident against Union yesterday, when the guests missed an opportunity to make it 0-1 after just 15 seconds (Ingvartsen hit the bar), must not be repeated. "We started the game very badly and were sleep-walking through the first few minutes," Terzic admitted. "In the end, we managed to keep a clean sheet and score the second goal." His team created far more opportunities (12-3), but ultimately had goalkeeper Marwin Hitz to thank for tipping Max Kruse's perfectly struck free-kick on to the post in the 66th minute, thus preventing an equaliser. Against a solid defensive opponent with a willingness to run, his side had "created a lot of chances", Terzic noted: "Unfortunately, we couldn't use them as we would have liked."
Even though top goalscorer Erling Haaland failed to score this time despite a number of big chances, Borussia's front line were impressive and became even more lively and dangerous with the introduction of Jadon Sancho after a seven week absence.
The only bad news is that defensive linchpin Mats Hummels will miss the game in Wolfsburg, having picked up his fifth yellow card of the season. "Someone else will take his place," said Terzic: "We have other important games after that and we hope Mats will be in top form for them."
BVB will make the trip to Lower Saxony without Hummels, but on an impressive run. Since 2015, Dortmund have won every away game at VfL, and boast their best away record against them with twelve wins, five draws and only six defeats.
Boris Rupert