Borussia Dortmund's U23s succumbed to their first defeat of the season as they were beaten 2-1 (1-0) by SV Rödinghausen in an intense game on Matchday 17 of the Regionalliga West. Steffen Tigges scored for BVB.

The scenario: Despite their stuttering start to the campaign, Rödinghausen went into this round of fixtures in ninth place in the table. The visitors had claimed a 2-0 victory over SC Wiedenbrück in their previous outing. BVB went into the match unbeaten and in second place behind RW Essen.

Personnel matters: BVB coach Enrico Maaßen saw no need to make changes after the derby win on Saturday. The U23s fielded the same line-up that started against FC Schalke 04, with Tobias Raschl and Ansgar Knauff again involved.

The match & analysis: Rödinghausen made the stronger start in the opening minutes, pressing very early and initially forcing BVB into making long passes. The league's ninth-placed side showed purpose on the ball and had two dangerous shooting opportunities in the first five minutes. Borussia rode out the initial pressure from the visitors, however, and had their first sighting of goal on 10 minutes when Steffen Tigges controlled a Stefan Drljaca goal-kick and fed Richmond Tachie. But the winger fired over the crossbar from around 20 metres out.

It developed into an open encounter, with both teams registering chances. It was Rödinghausen that opened the scoring, however, with Yassin Ibrahim latching onto a pass in behind the Dortmund defence and firing an unstoppable shot past BVB shot-stopper Drljaca from a centre-left position. The goalscorer played in the Dortmund youth system until the summer of 2019. The Black & Yellows were unperturbed by the setback, increasing their share of possession and recording several dangerous chances. An away defender twice had to clear off the goal-line with the keeper beaten. The best opportunity fell to Taylan Duman in first-half stoppage time when a penalty was awarded for a foul on Steffen Tigges. But SVR custodian Sebald made the save and kept the score at 1-0 heading into the interval.

The Black & Yellows started the second period where they had left off before the break. Only 25 seconds had passed when Ansgar Knauff was teed up by Steffen Tigges and came close to equalising, but visiting shot-stopper Sebald made another strong save. BVB continued to take more and more risks around the hour mark, while Rödinghausen waited for opportunities to counter and largely thwarted Dortmund's attacking efforts with their physical approach. One such counter-attack led to the visitors making it 2-0 in the 62nd minute, Yassin Ibrahim again getting the better of Stefan Drljaca. Enrico Maaßen reacted by bringing on fresh legs in the form of Philipp Harlaß and Marco Hober.

Borussia kept going, but Rödinghausen also demonstrated great passion and repeatedly managed to get a leg in the way to block any shots at goal. The luck was not on BVB's side and, despite having many opportunities from set-pieces, a Rödinghausen player always seemed to be the first to the ball. With that in mind, it was almost to be expected that BVB's goal to make it 2-1 would come from a ball that had been blocked twice. In the end, it was Steffen Tigges who prodded it over the line in the 84th minute. But it was too little too late and Rödinghausen held on to their slender lead.

Outlook: The U23s will close out the English week with a visit to SC Bergisch Gladbach on Sunday (14:00 CET).

Team & goals

BVB U23s: Drljaca, Maloney, Hippe (Finnsson, 73), Bakir (Harlaß, 63), Duman, Tachie, Tigges, Pfanne, Dams, Knauff (Wanner, 81), Raschl (Hober, 63)

Goals: 0-1 Ibrahim (24), 0-2 Ibrahim (62), 1-2 Tigges (84)

Incidents of note: Duman has penalty saved by Sebald (45)