Borussia Dortmund impressively prevented the feared Christmas crisis. BVB won the turbulent last game of the year in the Bundesliga 3-1 (3-0) at VfL Wolfsburg and is now going into the three-week winter break in sixth place in the table, only two points behind a place in the Champions League.
In the event of a defeat, coach Nuri Sahin’s team would have fallen back to eleventh place. That would have been the worst Christmas result since the last season with BVB saint Jürgen Klopp ten years ago. But goals from Donyell Malen (25th minute), Maximilian Beier (28th) and Julian Brandt (30th) within five minutes prevented this from happening. In the second half, the game threatened to tip over again after Denis Vavro made it 3-1 (58′) and a red card for Pascal Groß (62′).
In the end, 28,917 spectators in the sold-out Volkswagen Arena saw Dortmund deserve their first away win of this Bundesliga season. And also revenge for the cup exit in Wolfsburg just two months earlier.
Sahin’s brave formation
BVB coach Sahin had reacted very briskly to the winless series in December before kick-off. On Friday, his emotional dressing room speech after the disappointing 1-1 draw against 1899 Hoffenheim became public (“Are you winning types?”). On Sunday evening he relied on an unconditional offensive orientation with two strikers (Beier, Guirassy), three attacking midfielders (Malen, Brandt, Gittens) and only one protection (Felix Nmecha) behind them.
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The fact that VfL coach Ralph Hasenhüttl simultaneously moved away from his successful system of the past few weeks and acted much more cautiously was a signal to both teams: Dortmund played very courageously and dominantly, while Wolfsburg was inhibited.
Brandt missed the first big chance for the guests in the second minute. At the end of the first half, BVB had already scored three goals and missed three more opportunities before VfL even had its first chance to score: Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel parried a header from Mattias Svanberg from close range (35′).
Completion against Completion
Hasenhüttl brought on two new strikers at the break, giving the evening a more family touch. Because now Lukas Nmecha from Wolfsburg played against his brother Felix, who went from the Volkswagen Club to Borussia in 2023 for 30 million euros.
The striker, who had been injured for a long time, missed the first chance to bring VfL back in the 48th minute. Completely free-standing, Nmecha failed against Kobel.
Later, the 26-year-old also got Groß a red card when he forced the Dortmund international to make an emergency stop. The following free kick by Vavro was the great chance to make it 2-3 (65′) shortly after the Slovakian’s goal.
Wolfsburg now had four attackers on the pitch and were therefore overwhelmingly superior in the second half. What spoke in BVB’s favor was that being outnumbered for almost half an hour sharpened the senses rather than created uncertainty. Brandt (65th) and Guirassy (69th) even missed good counterattack chances to score a fourth goal.