"Today was our day" – Drljaca helps U23s to three points in Cologne

The scenario: Fortuna Cologne went into this match in fourth place in the Regionalliga West, with 18 points from nine games. Meanwhile, BVB were in second spot with 20 points from eight matches.

Personnel matters: Enrico Maaßen made two changes to the starting XI that had beaten RW Ahlen 6-0 last time out, with Marco Hober and Dominik Wanner making way for Ansgar Knauff and Tobias Raschl. It was the first time that Raschl has featured for the reserves this season.

The match: The Black & Yellow youngsters made an outstanding start to this crunch clash. Niklas Dams played a long ball towards Richmond Tachie, who fed Tobi Raschl and the central midfielder fired the ball into the bottom left corner from around 10 metres to open the scoring for BVB. Barely three minutes had been played. There were several parallels to the Ahlen match in the minutes that followed. Dortmund were equally dominant and the opposition had hardly any lengthy spells of possession. There were chances to add a second, but Steffen Tigges and Tobi Raschl both missed narrowly.

But Taylan Duman managed to double the advantage around a quarter of an hour after the opener, slotting home a penalty awarded for a foul on Alaa Bakir. Centre-forward Tigges could have added a third goal a few moments later, but Kevin Rauhut in the Cologne goal came out on top in the one-on-one battle. BVB delivered another mature performance, clearly dominating proceedings and winning almost every challenge. Cologne did have a slightly larger share of the possession towards the end of the first half, although Stefan Drljaca in the Dortmund goal was not required to make a decisive intervention and the half-time whistle blew with the score 2-0.

BVB boss Enrico Maaßen opted against making changes at the break, whereas Cologne made two substitutions and re-emerged looking to make amends for a weak first-half performance. Stefan Drljaca made a key save for the first time shortly after the restart, turning a powerful Hamza Salman free-kick from 20 metres out over the crossbar. BVB had a chance to make it 3-0 at the other end almost immediately, only for Richmond Tachie to be denied by Rauhut in the Cologne goal after being teed up by Tobi Raschl.

The hosts were much more attack-minded in the period that followed. BVB, meanwhile, waited for counter-attacking opportunities but could not see them through to the end. Fortuna then managed to pull a goal back with around 20 minutes remaining, Franko Uzelac heading home following a corner. Cologne were now on the front foot, pressing BVB back into their own half. But the Black & Yellow youngsters defended passionately and threw themselves at every ball. A combination of that defending and some heroics from Stefan Drljaca, who clawed a free-kick off the line in the last minute and made another save seconds later, saw BVB over the line for a deserved win.

The match reactions: 

Stefan Drljaca: "The victory does us a great deal of good, especially because it's a win against a direct rival. We made a statement today, we were 100% dominant and showed the quality that we have. You can see from the lads that each of them fights for each other. Especially in the closing stages, you could that with every long ball they were going for it. You applaud each other, spur each other on and that's how you see out a game like that."

Enrico Maaßen: "We laid the foundations for the victory in the first period. We did not manage to add the third goal. Fortuna's height means that they are extremely strong from set-pieces. And unfortunately that's how we conceded a goal. The match was on a knife edge after that. We gave away little from open play and at the back Stefan Drljaca ensured we held on to the win."

Team & goals

BVB U23s: Drljaca, Maloney, Hippe, Bakir (Krebs, 66), Duman (Finnsson, 77), Tachie, Tigges, Pfanne, Dams, Knauff (Wanner, 55), Raschl (Hober, 55)

Goals: 0-1 Raschl (3), 0-2 Duman (pen., 19), 1-2 Uzelac (69)

Timo Lammert