Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 5:24 PM• Daniel Cabot Kerkdijk • Last update: 17:27

Borussia Dortmund and SC Freiburg did excellent business in the Bundesliga on Saturday. The team of coach Marco Rose was 2-1 too strong for FC Augsburg, while SC Freiburg won with the same numbers at Hertha BSC: 1-2. Both teams now have one point less than leader Bayern Munich, fifteen to sixteen, although the defending champion has played one game less. Mark van Bommel’s VfL Wolfsburg was unable to win for the third match day in a row, and for the fifth official game in a row, and is stuck at thirteen points.

Borussia Dortmund – FC Augsburg 2-1
Rose’s team took the lead after nine minutes of play. Donyell Malen shielded the ball in the penalty area and was then clumsily kicked on the heel by Jeffrey Gouweleeuw. Raphael Guerreiro sent goalkeeper Rafal Gikiewicz into the wrong corner from eleven meters: 1-0. Dortmund controlled the game after the early lead, but didn’t push enough and got the 1-1 out of nowhere. Arne Meier’s effort from about 25 meters came through the crossbar and the shoulder of Gregor Kobel at the feet of Andi Zeqiri, who still worked the leather into the goal.

Dortmund took the lead again five minutes after the break. Rose’s team got off to a good start after taking the ball around their own goal area and in the end it was Julian Brandt who aimed the ball into the short corner behind Gikiewicz: 2-1. The lack of precision in the rounding kept things tense for a long time. Both Marco Reus and Thorgan Hazard hit the aluminum, while Gikiewicz himself also prevented a wider deficit. Augsburg, however, could not force a draw, partly because Florian Niederlechner was not accurate eye to eye with Kobel a few minutes before the end. Malen was replaced by Reinier after 72 minutes.

VfL Wolfsburg – Borussia Monchengladbach 1-3
Van Bommel’s team could hardly have started the match worse. After seven minutes, the visitors were already leading 0-2. In the fifth minute it was hit when Breel Embolo worked the ball in from close range after a failed volley by Denis Zakaria: 0-1. Two minutes later, Jonas Hofmann rounded off after a good play by Embolo on the left: 0-2. Luka Waldschmidt made the connection goal after 25 minutes with his first competition goal, after a scrimmage. The lead of that Fohlen However, he remained standing until the break and that was well deserved.

After the break, the game went back and forth and the teams kept each other in balance for a long time. Fifteen minutes before the end, Wolfsburg, with Wout Weghorst as the starting player, was left with ten men when Maxence Lacroix received his second yellow card for a foul on Embolo in the penalty area. Lars Stindl was instructed to close the game from eleven meters, but goalkeeper Koen Casteels guessed his intentions. However, Borussia Mönchengladbach exploited the surplus situation well and did not relinquish the lead. Jérôme Roussillon also got red at the home team after a tackle as the last man, but the VAR pointed out to the arbiter that the intervention was perfect. Deep into extra time, Joseph Scally determined the final score.

Hertha Berlin – SC Freiburg 1-2
The visit made the best impression in the first 45 minutes: the team of coach Christian Streich achieved a constant level and the lead at halftime was well deserved. The opening goal also fell when the home team, where Deyovaisio Zeefuik was missing due to injury, became stronger. After a sharp corner from Christian Günter towards the near post, it was Philipp Lienhart who headed the ball over goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow: 0-1. Mark Flek had a relatively quiet first half, in which he had to come into action just before the 0-1 in minute sixteen on a free kick by Stevan Jovetic.

Freiburg was also somewhat better than Pal Dardai’s team in the second half, but still had to take an equalizer twenty minutes before the end. Krzysztof Piatek was just a little faster than Günter and scored the 1-1. A few minutes later, Freiburg got away well when Flek cleared a pass from Suat Serdar and substitute Jurgen Ekkelenkamp aimed the ball against the crossbar. Another substitute, Nils Petersen, decided the game not much later on the other side. After a corner the ball came unluckily against Dedryck Boyata, after which the supersub shot in the 1-2.