Borussia Dortmund kicked off their pre-season campaign before the 2021/22 season with a win. New head coach Marco Rose saw his BVB side win his first game in charge on Tuesday evening against Regionalliga Südwest side FC Gießen 2-0 (2-0). Yet the best news of the day was that fans were allowed into the stadium.

Boris Rupert reporting from Gießen

In terms of his personnel, Rose was forced to improvise. Alongside the eleven missing after international duty at the European Championships, Morey, Zagadou and Coulibaly, among others, were missing due to injury. Haaland was also unavailable. The new head coach sent his team out in a 4-3-3 formation. The 3,700 fans in attendance, who were only permitted to enter the Waldstadion if they were able to produce a negative coronavirus test result from the same day, had to wait a little while for the first highlight. After 25 minutes, Gießen's defensive linchpin Reitmeier made a goal-saving tackle as Knauff was about to shoot, before seeing the first opportunity for the hosts fall to him. Reitmeier met a cross from a free kick, but sent his header over the BVB goal on 29 minutes.

Brandt made the most of a gap on the left-hand side and laid on the assist for Knauff's opener after 34 minutes. Eight minutes later, it was Dahoud who provided the assist, flicking Brandt's pass on into the box. Tigges received the pass well and carried the ball forward impressively. His shot was equally impressive: he fired into the top corner of the far post to make it 0-2 to the away side.

The Black and Yellows went into the second half with eleven players from the U23s and a new system (3-4-1-2). The young side worked hard and created several goalscoring opportunities. Following good link-up play between Makreckis and Tachie, Raschl fired just over after 47 minutes, Tachie saw his shot saved by the keeper on 53 minutes, before Pherai and Taz narrowly missed the target following solo efforts after 72 and 75 minutes, respectively. Tachie did find the net after Taz's free-kick, but it was chalked off for offside on 84 minutes. Gießen's keeper really shone as he saved Pfanne's thunderbolt shortly before the final whistle.

BVB 1st half: Hitz – Passlack, Thaqi, Collins, Schulz – Dahoud – Gürpüz, Brandt – Knauff, Tigges, Tigges
BVB 2nd half: Unbehaun – Hippe, Papadopulos, Finsson – Makreckis, Pfanne, Raschl, Taz – Pherai – Tachie, Bornemann (Tattermusch, 78)
Goals: 0-1 Knauff (34, Brandt), 0-2 Tigges (42, Dahoud)