Axel Witsel and Marco Reus spare Borussia Dortmund's blushes against Greuther Fürth in DFB Cup first round
Marco Reus scored a 120th-minute winner as Borussia Dortmund came from behind to beat Bundesliga 2 club Greuther Fürth in the DFB Cup first round.
Greuther Fürth 1-2 (AET) Borusia Dortmund
Goals: 1-0 Ernst (77'), 1-1 Witsel (90+5'), 1-2 Reus (120')
With new captain Reus leading the line, Dortmund dominated proceedings in the first half. The first real chance fell to left-back Marcel Schmelzer, but he was unable to beat Fürth goalkeeper Sascha Burchert, who set the tone for things to come with a fine save. Burchert foiled Reus twice, before debutant Thomas Delaney lashed wide following another promising opening for the visitors.
Sensing it might be their night, Fürth emerged with renewed confidence after the restart with substitute Tobias Mohr and Sebastian Ernst going close. Dortmund responded in kind as Christian Pulisic struck the outside of the woodwork, before Burchert thwarted the American and teammate Reus in quick succession. Dortmund's profligacy was punished when Ernst turned in Daniel Keita-Ruel's cut-back, only for debutant Axel Witsel - on as a second-half substitute – to strike at the death and force extra time.
Lukas Gugganig and Schalke loanee Fabian Reese tested Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Bürki, but just as the contest looked set to be decided on penalties, Reus landed the knock-out blow, sweeping in first-time from substitute Jadon Sancho to secure BVB's passage into the second round.
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Line-ups
Fürth: Burchert - Hilbert, Maloca, Bauer (Magyar 89'), Wittek - Gugganig, Omladic (Mohr 46') - Ernst, Green (Abouchabaka 96'), Atanga (Reese 70') - Keita-Ruel
Unused subs: Funk Parker, Raum
Absentees: Caligiuri (muscle)
Coach: Damir Buric
Dortmund: Bürki - Piszczek, Diallo, Akanji, Schmelzer - Delaney (Witsel 74'), Dahoud - Götze (Philipp 63') - Pulisic (Sancho 80'), Wolf (Guerreiro 96') - Reus (c)
Unused subs: Hitz, Hakimi, Toprak
Absentees: Bruun Larsen (foot)
Coach: Lucien Favre
Match stats
- Reus was also Dortmund's match-winner in the club's last DFB Cup meeting with Fürth, at the semi-final stage in 2012.Witsel scored on his competitive Dortmund debut.Delaney, Abdou Diallo, Marius Wolf and coach Lucien Favre also took their BVB bows.Dortmund have slipped up in the first round 11 times before, including that 1990 elimination to Fürth.Favre's best run in the DFB Cup was reaching the semi-finals with Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2011/12.Fürth were the last Bundesliga 2 team to knock-out a Bundesliga club in the DFB Cup when they beat Mainz in the second round in 2016/17.
As it happened
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