The Black & Yellows were in a goalscoring mood in their last home game of the season. Against bottom-placed SV Bergisch Gladbach, BVB turned it up in the second half and came away with a deserved 3-1 (1-0) win. Richmond Tachie, Dominik Wanner and Steffen Tigges were the goalscorers in front of a crowd of 500 at the Rote Erde Stadium. The visitors were able to pull back a late consolation goal from the penalty spot.

The scenario: Borussia Dortmund came into the game top of the table, while Bergisch Gladbach were bottom. A win for BVB would mean a huge step towards promotion to the 3. Liga. Bergisch Gladbach still had everything to play for in their fight against relegation.

Personnel matters: BVB coach Enrico Maaßen made three changes to the side that drew with VfB Homberg: Marco Hober, Henri Weigelt and Dominik Wanner came into the starting line-up to replace Haymenn Bah-Traore, Albin Thaqi and Patrick Osterhage.  

The match & analysis: The guests got off to a bright start offensively and had their first chance in the fourth minute. However, Meguru Odagaki was unable to get the better of Dortmund goalkeeper Luca Unbehaun. The Black & Yellows soon came to life and started to move the ball around the park with ease. Nonetheless, Bergisch Gladbach were determined in their pursuit and defended well in a compact 5-4-1 formation. BVB looked to punish any errors on the part of Gladbach, and this approach paid off in the 25th minute: Alaa Bakir won the ball in the final third on the press and squared it to Richmond Tachie, who slipped the ball home from near the penalty spot to make it 1-0.

The Black & Yellows gained composure after scoring the opener, but were unable to press home their advantage and score a second. Steffen Tigges and Alaa Bakir both tried their luck but couldn't hit the target. After an entertaining first half, the two sides went in at the break with BVB up 1-0 on the scoreboard.

Although both teams came out of the dressing room unchanged for the second half, Bergisch Gladbach sought to get more men forward in light of scores in other games taking place simultaneously. However, BVB succeeded in keeping the visitors at bay while creating several chances to extend the lead to 2-0. Around the hour mark, Dominik Wanner teed up Steffen Tigges, but he was unable to get over the ball and his shot flew over the crossbar. Wanner made no such mistake a few minutes later: after some nice combination play from Ansgar Knauff and Steffen Tigges, the winger was on hand to guide the ball into the back of the net from close range.

The result was beyond doubt, all the more so given that BVB soon managed to extend the lead to 3-0. Steffen Tigges was well placed to slot the ball home from close range after a deflection landed at his feet. Bergisch Gladbach managed to pull one back from the penalty spot late on, but the Dortmund victory was never under threat. Now the Black & Yellows go into the final matchday of the Regionalliga West season with a three-point and two-goal advantage over their closest rivals. Promotion to the 3. Liga is within touching distance.

Match reactions:  

Enrico Maaßen: "We are very happy because we won the game. At this stage of the season, it was all about winning the game. Of course, we would have liked to score one more goal. It was definitely possible. We are a bit annoyed about the goal we conceded. We wanted to get the three points, and we managed to do that, which gives us a good starting position for Saturday."

Franz Pfanne: "I think you could tell that we wanted this win right from the start. Of course, sometimes things don't come as easy as you would like, but then it just feels so great to get the three points and celebrate with the fans. That gave us a lot of strength for the final task. Now we have to put everything into the last 90 minutes. We won't let anything get in the way of this final step.''

Cebrail Makreckis: "We were switched on today and took the game as it came. It was very important that we scored the opening goal early on. It gave us a bit of security. Now we have a day off and then we'll focus fully on Wuppertal."

Outlook: The Black & Yellows' last game of the season will take place in Wuppertal's Stadion am Zoo at 14:00 CET on Saturday.

Team & goals
 
BVB U23s: Unbehaun, Hober (84, Krebs), Bakir (74, Osterhage), Tachie (58, Makreckis), Weigelt, Tigges, Finnsson, Pfanne, Dams, Raschl (58, Knauff), Wanner
 
Goals: 1-0 Tachie (25), 2-0 Wanner (67), 3-0 Tigges (74), 3-1 Koruk (88)

BVB-TV: rewatch the game against Bergisch Gladbach