Playing in front of a crowd of 6,234 fans away to Halleschen FC, Borussia Dortmund's U23s put in an impressive performance and ended up coming away with a deserved three points. A good dose of passion and two goals from Immanuel Pherai were enough to secure a 2-1 win. 

The opposition: The team from Saxony-Anhalt have had an average season so far. Impressive performances against top teams like Viktoria Berlin and 1. FC Magdeburg have been balanced out by defeats like the one against Havelse. In total, the team from Halle had only lost three matches before today's match, but they'd already drawn six games.

Personnel matters: BVB coach Enrico Maaßen made four changes to his starting line-up, with Dan-Axel Zagadou, Soumaila Coulibaly, Immanuel Pherai and Antonios Papadopoulos coming into the side to replace Haymenn Bah-Traore, Lennard Maloney, Tobias Raschl and Cebrail Makreckis.

The match & analysis: The hosts were faster out the blocks and dominated possession early on. The Black & Yellows seemed happy to sit back and bide their time. The first big chance for BVB fell to Papadopoulos after 15 minutes. Berkan Taz found him in space with a neat pass across goal, but the former Halle player's shot from ten metres out flew over the bar. BVB now grew into the game, as they looked to play more boldly and set the tempo. Immanuel Pherai had the next shot on goal when he tried his luck from distance around the 20-minute mark.

The hosts came close to scoring in the 27th minute, but Niklas Dams was able to clear the ball on the goalline. After half an hour, the Black & Yellows found the opening goal: Richmond Tachie delivered the ball to Immanuel Pherai, who was able to head over the goalkeeper from close range to make it 1-0. BVB were smart on the ball, stable in defence and consistently dangerous going forward. The team went into the dressing room for half-time with a slim lead.

BVB came out unchanged for the second half. Halle applied a lot of pressure early on and almost managed to make it 1-1 through a Terrence Boyd header in the 51st minute. Just two minutes later, the centre-forward was able to find the back of the net. After a free kick delivery into the box, Boyd rose highest and nodded the ball home to equalise. The Black & Yellows didn't let their heads drop and had two good chances to regain the lead through Tachie (56) and Coulibaly (58).

Ten minutes after the equaliser, Immanuel Pherai found himself in space in front of the Halle box and capitalised on the opportunity by drilling a shot into the back of the net from twenty metres out to open up a 2-1 lead (63). BVB were the better team, effectively combining quick-thinking and passionate defending. Halle posed little danger from open play and only managed to threaten the Dortmund goal from set-pieces. With ten minutes to go, coach Enrico Maaßen brought on Ted Tattermusch for Ole Pohlmann to give the team more height when defending set-pieces. 

Halle threw lots of men forward, meaning the Black & Yellows had multiple opportunities to hit them on the break. The young BVB side gave it their all, throwing themselves in front of every ball to keep Stefan Drljaca's goal free of danger. The referee signalled for five minutes of injury time, in which the Dortmund keeper was required to make several last-ditch saves. By the time the final whistle was blown, BVB were rewarded for a strong away performance with three points, thereby lifting themselves up to eighth place in the table.

BVB U23s: Drljaca – Papadopoulos, Coulibaly, Zagadou (59, Maloney) – Viet, Dams, Pfanne, Pohlmann (80, Tattermusch), Pherai (87, Bah-Traore) – Tachie, Taz

Goals: 0-1 Pherai (30), 1-1 Boyd (53), 1-2 Pherai (63)

Outlook: 1. FC Kaiserslautern will be the visitors at the Rote Erde Stadium next Saturday (kick-off 14:00 CET).