On Saturday, Sportclub Freiburg will visit Signal Iduna Park. On a previous visit five years ago, on 16 March 2013, the visitors from Baden-Württemberg initially dominated before being overrun by BVB shortly before half-time and eventually losing 5-1. We cast a glance back.

The visitors began brightly and created their first good chance in the sixth minute, only for Freiburg forward Terrazzino to hesitate for too long before pulling the trigger. The next opportunity fell to Flum, whose shot from 15 metres out sailed wide of the frame of the goal. But the visitors continued to make intelligent use of the space available and finally opened the scoring on the 28-minute mark. As a cross came in from Schuster on the right, the Black & Yellows failed to get tight enough to Kruse, who had the presence of mind to cut the ball back from the byline for the onrushing Schmid to tap home from close range.

BVB were struggling to cope with a compact and strong Freiburg side. But a Sahin free-kick floated into the box from 30 metres brought about an equaliser, with Lewandowski out-jumping his marker and nodding home to level the score at 1-1. The equaliser marked the start of four furious minutes for the Black & Yellows. Blaszczykowski dribbled through half the Freiburg defence before laying off to Sahin, whose powerful effort into the bottom-right corner fired the hosts into a 2-1 lead (44).

The celebrating spectators had barely sat down again by the time Lewandowski extended Dortmund's lead to 3-1 in first-half stoppage time (45+1). In attempting to defend a Reus attack, the Freiburg rearguard presented Lewandowski with a gift in the penalty box and the Poland international mercilessly punished the mistake. "The last five minutes before the break were outstanding, and in the second half we played really well."

Put at ease by their two-goal cushion, BVB dominated proceedings after the interval. There was to be little more of Freiburg's free-flowing football from the opening half to see, with the visitors now fully occupied by their defensive duties.

BVB really piled on the pressure down the right-hand side, with Sahin involved in almost every move. His long-range effort in the 67th minute was blocked by the Freiburg defence, but he went one better six minutes later when he powerfully drove the rebound from a Reus shot just under the Freiburg crossbar from ten metres out to make it 4-1 (73). The Black & Yellows weren't finished there, though. Lewandowski cut in towards the Freiburg goal from the left and sent the ball towards the back post, where Bittencourt, who had only come off the bench two minutes earlier, was waiting to tap the ball over the line for the fifth (78). The spectators responded to the stunning display with a standing ovation until the final whistle.

"Scoring three goals in such a short space of time after being behind – I've never experienced that before," said Marcel Schmelzer, while two-goal scorer Nuri Sahin was "happy to have played my part in this victory. He admitted: "I had to perform well because my son was in the stadium for the first time today."
Johannes Vorspohl