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Donyell Malen scored for the first time in the Bundesliga
Photo: Martin Meissner / AP
The winner of the game:
30 million euros are a proud transfer fee in German football.
They are also the price that Borussia Dortmund paid PSV Eindhoven for Donyell Malen in the summer - only the return of Mats Hummels and the signing of Ousmane Dembélé cost BVB more.
The expectations of the Dutchman are correspondingly high.
But it took twelve game days until Malen's first Bundesliga goal, against VfB Stuttgart the time had finally come: a deflected shot, a cheer in front of the yellow wall - did Malen finally arrive?
The result:
At least the euphoria of Malen and his BVB colleagues did not get too much of a damper, despite the immediate Stuttgart equalization, the result was a 2-1 (0-0) victory in the end.
Click here for the match report.
Welcome back:
Marco Rose was still not available to his storm force Erling Haaland, but at least in the left-back position, the Dortmunders were no longer dependent on solutions to embarrassment. Seven weeks after a hamstring tore, Raphaël Guerreiro reported that he was fit again. Perhaps the strongest left-back in the league prevented Borussia from having to build a predetermined breaking point in the starting line-up: Recently, even winger Thorgan Hazard had to help out on the left at the back.
First half:
Guerreiro alone, however, could not bring the esprit back to a Dortmund team that seldom played badly recently, but also almost never enthused. Haaland's muscle injury stole and robs the team offensively too many of their weapons, and so the Stuttgart Swabians initially held up as well as the Augsburg Swabians against FC Bayern on the previous evening. Dortmund's goal danger was a rarity, especially in the game.
The search for depth:
Had Manuel Akanji and ex-Stuttgart Gregor Kobel not been very attentive on the BVB defense, Dortmund would have been able to match their Bavarian rivals in terms of goals conceded. Especially the lightning-fast Tanguy Coulibaly with his deep runs and the best guest chance (38th minute) was difficult to tame, which was of course due to the fact that the Stuttgart found more room for counterattack. BVB, on the other hand, hardly ever served sprints behind the opponent's defense, which showed once more: Haaland's expansive steps, his lurking on the border to offside - no black and yellow can yet duplicate that. Not even Malen, who felt more comfortable in a two-striker system in Eindhoven than as a solo leader.
Second half:
On this Saturday afternoon, BVB didn't have to either. Constant dripping hollowed out the stone, respectively the Stuttgart defensive. Malen's shot from the edge of the box from Hiroki Ito happily flipped into the goal (56th). VfB then used one of Akanji's rare mistakes to win the ball and to score, Roberto Massimo had Hummels curved around worth seeing (63.). On the other side, Akanji failed on the upper edge of the crossbar (66th). But it should be enough for the home win, the seventh in the seventh attempt this season.
The problem with the corner:
That was not because of a power play by BVB, on the contrary, because Stuttgart was still playing for victory with an apparently controlled offensive. Apparently because a corner kick turned into a boomerang: A beautifully played counterattack against Steffen Tigges, Hazard and Marco Reus brought the Dortmunders a threesome in their own stadium (85th), which was not entirely undeserved, but rather classified as a flattering category .
The countdown is on:
After losing in the top game against RB Leipzig before the international break, BVB should at least have a little self-confidence for the coming weeks, in which the further course of the season could already be decided in advance.
In Lisbon on Wednesday the game against Sporting is about wintering in the Champions League (9 p.m., live ticker SPIEGEL.de; Stream: DAZN), followed by the league duels against Wolfsburg and the newly stumbled Bayern.
