Haller’s first goal, the best moment of the afternoon during a big win over Freiburg


Saturday, February 4, 2023 at 5:23 PM• Noel Korteweg • Last update: 17:39

Borussia Dortmund booked the fourth league victory in a row on Saturday afternoon. Those Boruses were 5-1 too strong for SC Freiburg at home thanks to goals from Nico Schlotterbeck, Karim Adeyemi, Sébastian Haller, Julian Brandt and Giovanni Reyna. Lucas Höler did something in return for the visitors just before half-time. It was Haller’s first official goal for the Germans. The striker missed much of this season due to his battle with testicular cancer.

Dortmund coach Edin Terzic started with Haller in the base. The former Ajax player started from kick-off for the second game in a row after coming on half an hour before the end in the two previous games. Furthermore, Marco Reus, Jude Bellingham, Emre Can and Brandt, among others, were also in the base. Youssoufa Moukoko was on the bench, as was Donyell Malen. On the Freiburg side, Mark Flek was under the crossbar. Ex-PSV player Ritsu Doan could also count on a basic place.

The game at Signal Iduna Park started with two lightning fast yellow cards for Kiliann Sildillia. The French defender got a ticket twice within two minutes and was therefore sent off early in the game with a red card. Both Bellingham and Niklas Süle then fired on Fleks’ goal, but Freiburg held on for the time being. Dortmund took the lead after more than half an hour of play. Schlotterbeck, who exchanged Freiburg for twenty million euros last summer for BVBaccounted for the opening goal.

The ball came from a corner to the defender, who then hit from a very difficult angle and hurt his old employer: 1-0. Dortmund went looking for the second goal after that goal, but Freiburg suddenly equalized shortly before the break. The ball – which Doan luckily took along twice – fell at the feet of Höler, who didn’t think twice and lashed out in one go. The German saw his effort roll in in the short corner: 1-1. Less than three minutes after the start of the second act, Dortmund put things in order via Adeyemi.

The home team took a short corner on Can, who then gave way to Adeyemi. After a combination with Bellingham, the young German was able to shoot into the far corner with his right: 2-1. Shortly after, the best moment of the match followed. Haller nodded in a measured cross from Raphaël Guerreiro, scoring his first official goal for Dortmund and increasing the margin to two: 3-1. After his goal, the striker pointed to his shoe, which read ‘F*ck cancer’. Haller got a crowd substitution from Terzic in the sixtieth minute. Moukoko was his replacement. Twenty minutes before the end, Brandt scored Dortmund’s fourth goal with a nice long shot, while Reyna scored the fifth and final goal in the eightieth minute: 5-1.

1. FC Union Berlin – FSV Mainz 05 2-1
Union, with Danilho Doekhi and Sheraldo Becker in the starting line-up as usual, was the better team in the first half. After ten minutes, Jérôme Roussillon saw his shot cleared from the corner by goalkeeper Finn Dahmen, after which an attempt by Rani Khedira just went wide afterwards. In the 32nd minute it was a hit for the home team: a cross from Paul Seguin was slid into the goal by Kevin Behrens. More than ten minutes before the end, Mainz received a penalty after Seguin had made hands in his own penalty area. Marcus Ingvartsen took advantage of the great opportunity and put the 1-1 on the board. Nevertheless, the three points remained in Berlin, because substitute Jordan Siebatcheu scored 2-1 with a hard shot in the 84th minute.

1. FC Cologne – RB Leipzig 0-0
In the entertaining first half, most of the chances were for the visitors. However, Timo Werner (just wide), André Silva (rescue Marvin Schwäbe) and again Werner (again rescue Schwäbe) did not have their sights set. On the other side of the field, Köln was also very close to the opening goal, when Linton Maina hit the post first and Dejan Ljubicic saw his rebound hit the crossbar. At the start of the second half, Leipzig seemed to be 0-1 through Werner, but the goal was rejected because it had been offside. Also in the remainder of the game, no more goals were scored, as a result of which Leipzig suffered an expensive loss of points.

No. Team m W G v +/- Pnt
1 1. FC Union Berlin 19 12 3 4 10 39
2 Bayern Munich 18 10 7 1 36 37
3 Borussia Dortmund 19 12 1 6 12 37
4 RB Leipzig 19 10 6 3 15 36
5 Eintracht Frankfurt 19 10 5 4 14 35
6 SC Freiburg 19 10 4 5 0 34
7 VfL Wolfsburg 18 8 5 5 14 29
8 Borussia Monchengladbach 18 7 4 7 5 25
9 Bayer Leverkusen 19 7 3 9 -1 24
10 Werder Bremen 18 7 3 8 -8 24
11 1. FC Cologne 19 5 8 6 -2 23
12 FSV Mainz 05 19 6 5 8 -4 23
13 FC Augsburg 19 6 3 10 -9 21
14 TSG Hoffenheim 19 5 4 10 -8 19
15 VfL Bochum 19 6 1 12 -22 19
16 VfB Stuttgart 18 3 7 8 -10 16
17 Hertha BSC 19 3 5 11 -15 14
18 Schalke 04 18 2 4 12 -27 10