Kramer favour helps Dortmund down Foals

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Dortmund - A remarkable own goal from Christoph Kramer granted Borussia Dortmund their first win in eight and condemned Borussia Mönchengladbach to their first defeat of the season by a 1-0 scoreline at the Signal Iduna Park.

One-way traffic

Dortmund delivered one of their most impressive first halves of the season, but despite peppering Yann Sommer's goal, it was a familiar story for Jürgen Klopp's men until Kramer obliged in the second half to give them a helping hand off the foot of the Bundesliga.

Former Gladbach menace Reus flashed the first shot of the game agonisingly across the face of goal with just a minute gone while the linesman's flag stopped Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in his tracks soon after in what was a bright start to the game from the hosts. A magnificent fingertip save from Sommer to push Reus' next effort onto the post kept the Foals on terms as they were feeling the full force of BVB's attack.

The linesman's flag again came to Gladbach's rescue to rule out Aubameyang's, but the Dortmund attacks were unrelenting. Lukasz Piszczek wasted another great opportunity, firing wide from a promising position, almost the same place Mkhitaryan was in when he beat Sommer, but cleared the crossbar.

The Sommer show


Beating Gladbach's Swiss goalkeeper was proving challenging and he exceeded himself once again on the stroke of half-time to tip Aubameyang's dipping free-kick over the crossbar. With 15 shots on goal and not one conceded, it was a demonstration from Dortmund which was lacking just one thing - a goal.

Goals are the only currency of any value in football, no matter how the ball ultimately goes into the back of the net, so a helping hand from Kramer in the 58th minute was more than welcome. The Gladbach and Germany midfielder was able to succeed where Dortmund's forwards had failed before him, lifting an extraordinary backpass over Sommer and into his own goal from 30 metres.

Papastathopoulos setback


The sense of relief was palpable around the Signal Iduna Park, while the sense of shame was even greater for the World Cup winner, who received a consolatory arm on his shoulder from Sebastian Kehl. With the deadlock broken, Dortmund were able to loosen up with Reus rattling the crossbar moments later.

Gladbach finally got their first shot on goal with Patrick Herrmann's effort blocked in the 64th minute, but Dortmund never ran any risk of conceding as Gladbach simply could not get their counter-attacking game flowing. And so it proved to be a comfortable win for Dortmund, but one which nevertheless came at a price with Sokratis Papastathopoulos limping off late on, dampening an otherwise perfect day for Borussia, and one to forget for Kramer.

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