Following their victory over Lion City Sailors, BVB made it two wins from two friendly matches on the ASIA TOUR. In Malaysia, Borussia ran out 4-1 winners over the Johor Southern Tigers, with many Black & Yellow fans watching on from the stands.

On Monday, the Black & Yellows made the two-hour bus journey from Singapore to Johor, Malaysia, where the Johor Southern Tigers awaited them at the Sultan Ibrahim Stadium in the second friendly match of the ASIA TOUR. The Malaysian champions, who have won the title nine times in a row, clinched the cup on Saturday and thus completed the domestic treble of the league title, cup and FA cup.

BVB first played in Johor back in July 2015, when they ran out 6-1 winners. This time around, with a crowd of over 30,000 spectators watching on, BVB took charge right from the first kick of the ball. The lively Donyell Malen had two chances early on: in the third minute he hit the crossbar with a free-kick from near the left corner of the area (3rd), and four minutes later, his low shot from 16 metres out was saved by goalkeeper Mohd Farizal Marlias. It was Justin Njinmah who broke the deadlock for Dortmund in the 11th minute. The Johon goalkeeper did well to parry a shot by Malen, but he was powerless to prevent the U23 striker from capitalising on the follow-up.

Following the opening goal, BVB kept their hosts under the cosh: Göktan Gürpüz just failed to connect with a Malen cross at the far post (14), then both Malen (27) and Jayden Braaf (29) fired shots just wide of the right hand-post from identical positions on the left. Two minutes later, the Black & Yellows extended their lead to 2-0: Malen received the ball 16 metres from goal and drilled a shot off the upright and into the back of the net. Then, in the 34th minute, Njinmah received a pass from Malen with his back to goal and attempted an audacious effort on the backheel, which rolled just wide of the target. In the 41st minute, the hosts made the most of their first real chance of the game to pull back to within a goal at 2-1. Arif Aiman Mohd Hanafi was the goalscorer. 

BVB coach Edin Terzic brought on eight fresh players after the break. The reshuffled team continued to dominate the encounter, though struggled to create much in the way of goalscoring opportunities, as the first real chance of the second half came from a free kick in the 59th minute. One minute later, however, Pohlmann netted to extend Dortmund's lead to 3-1. After receiving a ball to feet in the area, he evaded the challenge of a defender and slotted the ball past the goalkeeper. The home side, who were now causing BVB more problems, narrowly failed to score with two efforts in quick succession. The latter was due to an excellent save by Alexander Meyer in the Dortmund goal. Six minutes later, Samuel Bamba increased the lead to 4-1 for BVB with a powerful left-footed shot after a pass from Can Özkan - this was the third goal on this Asian tour for the youngster from the U19 squad. In the 78th minute, Rijkhoff failed to connect with a Bamba cross and thus missed a big chance to make it 5-1. Down the other end, Moussa Sidibe was denied by Alexander Meyer in the 82nd minute, meaning the score remained 4-1.

Immediately after the match, the team will travel to the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, where they will conclude the ASIA TOUR 2022 with a friendly match against the Vietnam national team on Wednesday (30 November, kick-off 13:00 CET). The match will be broadcast live on BVB-TV.

BVB first-half: Meyer – Semic, Hummels, Coulibaly, Schulz – Gürpüz, Can – Pasalic, Malen, Braaf – Njinmah

BVB second-half: Meyer – Semic (62, Passlack), Papadopoulos, Coulibaly (62, Collins), Bueno – Bamba, Özcan, Özkan, Pohlmann – Broschinski, Rijkhoff 

Goals: 0-1 Njinmah (11), 0-2 Malen (31), 1-2 Arif (41), 1-3 Pohlmann (60), 1-4 Bamba (69)
Christina Reinke