Borussia Dortmund bounce back with thrilling win over Eintracht Frankfurt
Borussia Dortmund put their midweek scare behind them with a richly deserved 3-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt. Marco Reus and Sokratis – with a goal of the season contender – scored before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang capped off the win late on for Thomas Tuchel’s side.
Borussia Dortmund 3-1 Eintracht Frankfurt
Goals: 1-0 Reus (2’), 1-1 Fabian (29’), 2-1 Sokratis (34’) 3-1 Aubameyang (86’)
Reus started his first game since early March, and wasted little time in opening the scoring, skilfully back-heeling Christian Pulisic’s cut-back after the American had sprung Eintracht’s offside trap. Marco Fabian missed the chance to restore parity from metres out before making amends with a spectacular effort that flew into Roman Bürki’s far top corner. Bürki then pulled off a point-blank save from Mijat Gacinovic before Sokratis – normally happy to camp out in his own half – forayed forward and let fly from the edge of the Frankfurt box, scoring with a scorching shot Lukas Hradecky was probably grateful not to get a hand on.
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Tuchel sent on Ousmane Dembele and Matthias Ginter in place of Reus and Sven Bender at the start of the second half, and the former – who had assisted Aubameyang eight times already this season - nearly extended his record on the hour, but the Gabon captain sent the teenager’s cross over the bar. The pair successfully combined in the final five minutes though, with Dembele selflessly squaring for the striker to add gloss to the scoreline with what is becoming a trademark chipped finish.
Watch: Three of the four Goal of the Week candidates came from this game alone!
Man of the Match
Sokratis had the third-most touches (82) and tackles (17) of any player on the pitch, quite aside from scoring one of the goals of the season for 2-1. Ömer Toprak will join BVB from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer, but the Greek centre-back is assured of his place in this side.
Match Stats
- Reus took just two minutes to score his first goal since January’s 1-1 draw at Mainz. The Germany forward has had a direct hand in seven goals in just 851 minutes of football.Dortmund remain unbeaten at home in the Bundesliga since April 2015, when they were edged 1-0 by Bayern Munich in the Klassiker.Fabian is Eintracht’s most productive attacking outlet, with five goals and four assists to his name.
Line-ups:
Dortmund: Bürki - Piszczek, Sokratis, Bender (Ginter 46’), Schmelzer (c) - Weigl (Castro 77’) - Sahin, Kagawa - Pulisic, Reus (Dembele 46’) - Aubameyang
Coach: Thomas Tuchel
Frankfurt: Hradecky - Abraham (c), Vallejo, Ordonez (Robic 56’) - Chandler, Oczipka - Mascarell, Gacinovic – Wolf (Blum 71’), Fabian - Hrgota (Barkok 81’)
Coach: Niko Kovac
Watch: Man of the Match Sokratis dedicates his stunning goal to Marc Bartra: