Dortmund (dpa) - Little shine, good luck - Borussia Dortmund has averted a setback in the championship race with difficulty. Thanks to the 1-0 (1-0) victory over SC Freiburg, the team of coach Lucien Favre keeps in touch with the top.
In front of 81,365 spectators in the sold-out Signal Iduna Park, goal scorer Jadon Sancho (15th) ensured the fourth competitive win in a row on Saturday.
BVB is going into the chase duel with Borussia Mönchengladbach this weekend with tailwind. On the other hand, the guests move away from international places more and more after just one win from the past six games, but showed increasing form in Dortmund.
Even without top scorer Erling Haaland, who recently missed a few training sessions due to illness and therefore initially sat on the bench, BVB took over from the start. But against the well-staggered Freiburg defensive, the search for a gap with all possession of the ball initially proved difficult.
However, that should change in the 15th minute. Because the first chance to score gave Borussia the lead. After Haaland's substitute Julian Brandt, Thorgan Hazard prevailed in the opposing penalty area and served the free-standing Sancho in an exemplary manner. He had no trouble getting the ball into the opposing goal from a short distance.
But the Englishman's 14th goal of the season gave Borussia no additional security. The oncoming gusts of wind with heavy rain made it difficult to set up the game on both sides. Freiburg seemed easier to deal with the adverse conditions. From then on, they provided significantly stronger resistance and occasionally caused the BVB defense to falter until the break. A long-range shot from Vincenzo Grifo (25th) went just over the goal.
But BVB had the greatest chance of another goal. After a worth seeing solo, Hazard hesitated too long with the shot on goal. Therefore, the Freiburg defense was able to clarify at the last moment.
After the restart, the BVB fans caused a stir in the south stand with swore songs against Hoffenheim patron Dietmar Hopp. Therefore, referee Robert Hartmann had the game interrupted for a few minutes and ordered a stadium announcement threatening to stop the game. Therefore, the sporting events took a back seat for minutes. That should only change with the shot by Brandt in the 60th minute just next to the Freiburg goal.
Shortly thereafter, Brandt cleared his place for Haaland. However, the substitution of the goal guarantor of the past games could not revive the BVB game. The passivity of the Dortmund team encouraged the guests: Within two minutes, Jonathan Schmid (68th) and Grifo (70th) offered chances to equalize. Only four minutes later, with a chance from Nils Petersen, BVB escaped the equalizer with luck. In a hectic final phase, BVB saved their lead over time, but hit the bar in the 88th minute after a shot by Achraf Hakimi.