Borussia Dortmund drew their fourth and final mid-winter break warm-up game with Fortuna Düsseldorf 1-1 (1-0) on Saturday. In a well-contested but decent game BVB grabbed a draw with an equaliser nine minutes from the end.

Reporting from Düsseldorf is Dennis-Julian Gottschlich 

23,699 fans made their way into the Esprit-Arena to see a game between the team placed sixth in the second tier and the team 17th in the Bundesliga elite. They saw a committed display from the visitors in the first half which ended with them going behind quite unluckily to a goal from Pohjanpalo four minutes before the end of the half. BVB were much more dominant in the second half and deservedly drew level courtesy of a Blaszczykowski penalty nine minutes from the end of the game.

The Scenario:

BVB came into the game having won each of their previous warm-up games 1-0 (versus Syon, Bucharest and Uetrecht) and thus keen to notch another clean sheet in their last game before the serious business starts again against Bayer Leverkusen next week. Fortuna, who have a further week to prepare for the start of their league season had also played three games having lost against FC Basel and Grasshoppers of Zurich and won 2-0 against KF Skenderbeu of Albania.

Personnel Matters:

Jürgen Klopp once again had to make do without the services of Bender, Durm, Grosskreutz and Kehl whilst Aubameyang, Kagawa and Langerak were also unavailable due to commitments with their countries. Mkhitaryan, having only resumed training with the team on Friday, was in the match-day squad.   

Tactics:

Just as against Utrecht BVB started in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Sahin and  Gündogan lining up as attack-minded central midfielders. Fortuna opted to defend deep in their own half making it hard to find a way through. Once Gündogan dropped out Ginter simply took the field to play in the same role.

The Game and Analysis:

BVB played a thoroughly decent first half with Reus and Kampl at the forefront of most things as they combined well with Grosskreutz in midfield. Some of their ball play was a delight.

While Benschop fashioned the first real chance of the game when he cut in from the left only to be denied by a magnificent Weidenfeller save, BVB pretty much dominated the first half testing and probing the deep-lying Fortuna and trying to create openings.

At last Hummels threaded a fine pass into the path of Piszczek down the right; the Pole in turn fed Kampl who just failed to find a way past Rensing from an acute angle. That chance came on 17 minutes with further efforts from Ramos, Hummels and Kampl again signifying a decent BVB first half but one without that elusive goal.  

And so it was that the home side ended the half on the up with Pohjanpalo firing wide from a way out on the half hour mark and then, eleven minutes later, opening the scoring as he dummied his way past Weidenfeller after fine approach play to slip the ball home and give Fortuna a somewhat fortuitous lead. It was a bitter pill for BVB to swallow as had been the sight of Gündogan limping from the field with what looked like a thigh injury.

The Black n Yellows resumed their attack on the Fortuna goal after the break and just a minute in, Grosskreutz had a great chance only to see Rensing narrow the angle to deny him. Six minutes later Immobile outplayed his marker and closed in on Rensing, slipped it past him only for the ball to come back off the post.

The Italian was once again at the centre of the action on 73 minutes as he once again rounded Rensing and pushed the ball towards an empty net only for Fink to chase back and clear. Finally the equaliser came not from open play but from the penalty spot. Immobile broke forward and laid the ball into the path of   Blaszczykowski who was then clearly held back in the box by Tah leaving the referee no option but to point at the spot. Blaszczykowski dusted himself off and rifled the penalty home to make the final score 1-1!

BVB Line-Up:

Weidenfeller - Piszczek (72. Passlack), Hummels (72. Burnic), Sokratis (62. Subotic), Schmelzer (62. Dudziak) - Sahin (62. Kirch), Gündogan (30. Ginter) - Großkreutz (72. Mkhitaryan), Reus (62. Jojic), Kampl (46. Blaszczkowski) - Ramos (46. Immobile)

Goals:

1-0 Pohjanpalo (41.), 1-1 Blaszczykowski (81./penalty)

Prospects:

So, the second half of the season, “Mission Catch-Up” begins on Saturday with a game against Bayer Leverkusen (kick-off 1830 CET). Just four days later BVB host FC Augsburg (kick-off 2000 CET).