Five minute flurry sees 10-man Dortmund past Wolfsburg

Bundesliga Matchday 15 came to an end with Wolfsburg playing host to Borussia Dortmund. The final fixture before the winter break ended in a 3-1 victory for Die Schwarzgelben.

Winless on the road all season thus far, Borussia Dortmund arrived in Lower Saxony hoping to end the year on a high before the impending winter break. Standing in their way, a resurgent VfL Wolfsburg team who have produced a handful of shocks in recent weeks. Yet, Ralph Hasenhüttl’s men couldn’t have forseen the BVB storm coming their way. A magnificent three-goal flurry midway through the first-half paved the path for Dortmund’s first away win over the Bundesliga campaign.

BVB looked vastly superior from the get-go as a fine chance fell the way of Serhou Guirassy who blazed wide. Eventually their dominance paid off in the 25th-minute as Donyell Malen smashed home Bensebaini’s corner on the volley. This paved the way to a flurry of goals as Dortmund bagged two more in a subsequent five-minute spell. Maximilian Beier netted after some slack Wolfsburg defending before returning the favour to tee up Julian Brandt who beautifully picked out the lower left corner from the cut-back.

Die Schwarzgelben fears started to jangle early into the second-half as Gregor Kobel repelled Lukas Nmecha, which signalled a twist in momentum. Die Wölfe eventually reduced the arrears when Maxi Arnold’s corner found Denis Vavro in an acre of space to head home. Suddenly, BVB found themselves a man down – Pascal Groß wiped out Lukas Nmecha who would have been clean through on goal resulting in a red card. Mathias Jöllenbeck would not be moved by any BVB remonstrations.

Camped inside their own half for the vast majority of the closing quarter of an hour, Nuri Şahin’s side relied on some brave defending from substitute Waldemar Anton. The visitor’s Swiss shot-stopper would produce another fine save to deny Maxi Arnold from range. Cautious of Wolfsburg’s recent trend of staging late comebacks, Şahin reverted to a 4-4-1 given their numerical disadvantage. From there, careful game management enabled Dortmund to ride out six long minutes of injury time to achieve victory.