The five goals conceded mean that this was Freiburg’s heaviest defeat of 2021/22 so far. Freiburg were never allowed into the game and spent long periods chasing the ball. Ermedin Demirovic gave the Breisgauer hope in the second half but in the end second-place Dortmund were worthy winners thanks to a strong showing. Freiburg head coach Christian Streich lamented a slow start in his post-match comments: “We gave away two cheap goals and then another before half-time. We didn’t get stuck into the tackles and we didn’t have the patience that you need against Borussia Dortmund. We had an awful first half, though the second was better."

The team news saw Benjamin Uphoff retain his place between the sticks following Mark Flekken’s positive COVID test. The solitary change from last week’s draw with Arminia Bielefeld saw Manuel Gulde come into the heart of defence; he replaced Keven Schlotterbeck who was dealing with a gut issue. Dortmund boss Marco Rose sent out the same eleven that won in Frankfurt last weekend. Just 750 fans were allowed inside the stadium as the game kicked off in a mostly empty Signal Iduna Park.

Set-pieces show the way for Dortmund

The match got off to a slow start with both sides feeling each other out. Freiburg launched a few counter-attacks but both fizzled out before posing a real threat. Dortmund then opened the scoring early on when Thomas Meunier got up in front of his marker to nod home from a corner (14’). Soon after, there was an unpleasant sense of deja vu as the Belgian repeated the trick. Meunier headed home a second set-piece, this time from the opposite flank (29’). Freiburg had been undone by a pair of Julian Brandt corners, but in truth the hosts had been good value for the lead. 

Before the game, Streich had demanded that his side retain possession and look to craft opportunities, but the first half saw too little of that from those in red shirts. Even when Freiburg won the ball back and space presented itself, the play was too untidy to capitalise. Things got even worse on the stroke of half-time as Haaland latched onto a through ball and finished coolly past Uphoff in net (45’).

Demirovic makes a difference before Dortmund settle matters

Sport-Club boss Christian Streich reacted with a pair of half-time subs as Kevin Schade and Ermedin Demirovic were sent on to add some much-needed bite to the attack. Demirovic had a good chance after just a few minutes but was unable to convert from a tight angle. His effort went just wide of the post (49’). 

The changes did pay off after a quarter of an hour, though, as Schade played in Sallai who forced a save from the goalkeeper. Demirovic was on hand to trap the rebound before calmly turning home from close range (61’). His first goal of the season, and a ray of hope for Freiburg!

Yannick Keitel and Noah Weißhaupt were introduced by Streich shortly after the goal, with Freiburg beginning to grow into the game. A shot from Schade failed to truly test Kobel, however, and the optimism was sadly to be short-lived. With fifteen minutes left on the clock, Haaland added his second, another one-on-one, to restore the three-goal cushion (75’) before Mo Dahoud wrapped things up with Dortmund’s fifth goal late on (86’).

Next up is a midweek trip to Hoffenheim in the DFB-Pokal (Wednesday, 19th January at 20:45 CET.)