Borussia Mönchengladbach were beaten 1-0 by Borussia Dortmund in the quarterfinals of the DFB-Pokal, with Jadon Sancho’s second-half goal enough to separate the sides.
The Foals made a confident start at BORUSSIA-PARK and almost took the lead after a couple of minutes too. Jonas Hofmann’s teasing cross behind the Dortmund defence found the run of Marcus Thuram at the back post, but he couldn’t quite direct the ball on target (2’). Gladbach were enjoying more of the ball, with BVB retreating inside their own half. Erling Haaland remained a dangerous target man though and had the away side’s only first-half chance after 36 minutes, running onto a long ball from Mats Hummels, only to fire wide one-on-one with pressure arriving behind him from the chasing Nico Elvedi. It then looked like Borussia had broken the deadlock on the stroke of half time with Thuram firing home from Alassane Plea’s through ball, but the linesman’s flag correctly went up for a marginal offside (45+2’).
It was Dortmund’s turn to have a goal ruled out early in the second half, as Haaland had tripped Ramy Bensebaini before firing the ball past Tobias Sippel (53’). The Algerian was then involved at the other end as the Foals had their best chance after the break. Lainer’s cross found its way through to the left-back who unleashed a thunderous first-time shot destined for the top corner, only for Marwin Hitz to get a strong hand to the ball and tip it past the post (59’). Just as Gladbach were pushing for the opener, a mistake allowed the away side to strike first. Florian Neuhaus lost possession on the edge of the BVB box after a corner-kick and a lightning-fast counterattack finished with Jadon Sancho making it 1-0 (66’). Marco Rose introduced fresh legs for the fightback and there were a couple of late chances. Denis Zakaria flashed a curling effort narrowly wide of the top corner (88’), before Stefan Lainer also drilled a shot inches over the crossbar with the last kick of the game, meaning the Foals exit the DFB-Pokal at the quarterfinal stage.
TEAM NEWS
As in the previous cup rounds, Rose chose to play Tobias Sippel in goal instead of Yann Sommer. There were also six other changes to the team from the weekend’s trip to Leipzig, with Denis Zakaria, Hannes Wolf, Jordan Beyer, Oscar Wendt, Valentino Lazaro and Breel Embolo replaced by Christoph Kramer, Florian Neuhaus, Stefan Lainer, Ramy Bensebaini, Lars Stindl and Alassane Plea.
The only players that remained sidelined were Tony Jantschke (muscular problems), Torben Müsel (fitness) and Famana Quizera (shoulder).
MATCH FACTS
Borussia: Sippel – Lainer, Ginter, Elvedi, Bensebaini – Neuhaus, Kramer (76’ Zakaria) – Hofmann (68’ Lazaro), Stindl (76’ Wolf), Thuram (76’ Embolo) – Plea
Dortmund: Hitz – Morey, Can, Hummels, Guerreiro (5’ Schulz) – Delaney – Dahoud, Bellingham (90’ Zagadou) – Reus, Haaland, Sancho (68’ Hazard)
Goals: 0-1 Sancho (66’)
Yellow cards: Bensebaini, Stindl / Reus, Hitz
Red cards: Dahoud
Referee: Sascha Stegemann (Niederkassel)
Attendance: 0
