Borussia Dortmund's U23s were beaten 3-1 (0-0) by Viktoria Köln in one of their games in hand in the Regionalliga West. The visitors were the cleverer team, making fewer errors and mercilessly punishing BVB's mistakes.

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The visitors made a flying start and created their first chance three minutes in, Holzweiler latching onto a lovely ball into the six-yard box and striking narrowly over. But Borussia subsequently grew into the game and created opportunities, with Hanke denied by visiting shot-stopper Patzler on eight minutes.

The game subsequently died down slightly until the 18th minute, when Dominik Reimann pulled off a wonderful reflex stop by brilliantly saving a header from a Köln player that had been flicked on following a corner.

At the other end five minutes later, Pavlidis latched onto an excellent ball from Bouali and played a through-ball into the six-yard box but none of his team-mates got on the end of it.

It wasn't until the half-hour mark that Viktoria carved open another good opportunity, with Wunderlich's free-kick narrowly missing the frame of the goal. Only seven minutes later, Wunderlich was in the thick of the action again but, standing in an unmarked position eight metres out, he misjudged the cross. A short while later Sören Dieckmann forayed down the left but Philipp Hanke had his back to goal and could not manage to slot home his fizzing cross.

In the 55th minute, the visitors took a surprise lead when Felix Backszat latched onto a through-ball in the penalty area to make it 1-0. The unlucky opener prompted a wave of angry BVB attacks, one of which was halted when a visiting played fouled Dieckmann. A penalty was awarded and Massimo Ornatelli converted the spot-kick to make it 1-1.

But subsequent Dortmund errors in build-up play and the loss of possession that followed them were twice punished ruthlessly by the visitors, for whom Golley scored in the 68th minute and Wunderlich made it 3-1 shortly afterwards. The visitors then played with maturity, moving the ball about and letting their opponents chase it in a simple but effective way.

Coach Jan Siewert said of the defeat: "The lads played to their absolute limits, then there were injuries too. We pretty much gifted them the first goal. The move that led to our penalty was brilliantly created. Sören Dieckmann made a strong sprint up top, that was our plan. After the equaliser I had the impression we had a better foothold in the game and then we made the mistakes that led to two goals. And then you saw the quality of the opposition, who punished us for the errors and then saw out the game in a cool and calm fashion. We had too many errors in our game, we will and must learn from that, especially for Sunday."
Jens Volke