In front of a crowd of 596, BVB slipped to a 3-0 defeat in Rote Erde stadium against mid-table Alemannia Aachen in a game carried over from matchday four.

How the teams stood before the game: Alemannia Aachen arrived in the Ruhr in 11th place after picking up 16 points in 12 games – one point less than BVB, who sit in 10th.

Team news: BVB coach Mike Tullberg made three changes to the side that fought out a 1-1 draw in Bonn: Gianluca Rizzo, Kolbeinn Finnsson and Jan-Pascal Reckert came in for Magnus Kaastrup, Tobias Raschl and Eric Oelschlägel.

The first half: Borussia got off to the worst imaginable start as goalkeeper Jan-Pascal Reckert had to pick the ball out of the net after just 28 seconds. Alemannia took full advantage of some early defensive confusion and went ahead in the opening seconds. After BVB had recovered from that early shock, it was again Alemannia, who doubled their lead with their second chance of the game. Sebastian Schmitt made it 2-0 for the visitors after 19 minutes making the most of a wonderful pass from Batarilo-Cerdic.

For the remainder of the first half, it was an even game. BVB enjoyed two good goalscoring chances, but first Steffen Tigges (25) and then Joseph Boyamba (28) were denied by the Aachen goalkeeper. After a largely quiet end to the opening 45 minutes, Aachen went into the break leading 2-0.

The second half: BVB coach Mike Tullberg opted not to make any changes for the start of the second half. Although the new 4-4-2 system with Rizzo as an additional striker didn’t prove effective in the first half, it did provide the necessary offensive impetus in the second half. But again, it was Alemannia who struck, scoring their third goal of the evening with only their fourth shot on goal. Kai Bösing won the ball in a challenge with BVB central defender Lars Bünning and fired a fine left footed finish to put the game to bed at 3-0 for Aachen.

BVB responded by making some substitutions on the hour mark. Jano Baxmann came on for his first appearance of the season, along with Magnus Kaastrup and Dominik Wanner for Joseph Boyamba, Tunga Malanda and Chris Führich. However, the triple substitution did not bring the desired success. Aachen defended cleverly and were always threatening going forward. Mike Tullberg made his last substitution by bringing on Arif Et in the 71st minute, but to no avail. The visitors were able to see the game out comfortably as BVB slipped to a 3-0 defeat.

Next game: After a break of two and a half years, we have another Amateur derby to look forward to. Kick-off is at 2 pm in the Rote Erde stadium against our near neighbours from Gelsenkirchen.

BVB U23: Reckert – Hippe, Rente, Bünning (71. Et), Finssonn – Boyamba (60. Baxmann), Tunga (60. Kaastrup), Hober, Führich (60. Wanner) - Tigges, Rizzo

Goals: 0:1 Batarilo-Cerdic (1.), 0:2 Schmidt (19.), 0:3 Bösing (55.)