How Borussia Dortmund beat Schalke in the Revierderby: AWS match facts analysis
Borussia Dortmund beat Schalke 1-0 in the 99th Revierderby of the Bundesliga era. Bundesliga Match Facts powered by AWS explains how they did it...
It was one-way traffic in the latest edition of the Revierderby on Bundesliga Matchday 7. Dortmund enjoyed significantly more possession (62 percent), had 19 goal attempts to Schalke's three, more corners (11 compared to two) and circulated the ball with real confidence. In total, 83 percent of their passes found a man. Schalke's pass completion was at 67 percent. In other words, they lost possession every third pass. The BVB press was simply too much for them to handle.
Schalke were also far too timid in attack. The Royal Blues' first of three attempts on the Dortmund goal arrived in the 62nd minute. More often than not, their passes into the penalty box were cut out by BVB centre-backs Mats Hummels and Nico Schlotterbeck. For the most part, the game was played in the Schalke half. The visitors entered the attacking third on just 24 occassions. The Black-Yellows, by contrast, made 79 incursions at the other end.
Watch: Youssoufa Moukoko won the Revierderby for Dortmund
The only surprise was that Dortmund - with a final xG of 2.94 to Schalke's 0.11 - didn't win by a more comfortable margin. Schalke have their defensive efforts in the central areas to thank for that. BVB were unable to play through the middle of a compact 4-2-3-1 formation, even more so after playmaker Marco Reus went off injured with 30 minutes gone.
It might explain why Dortmund head coach Edin Terzic favoured the flanks. According to 'Attacking Zones', 84 percent of BVB's forays in the final third were on the wings, including 44 percent down the left-hand side. Donyell Malen up against inexperienced right-back Henning Matriciani proved the key battle. Clocked at three kilometres per hour faster than Matriciani, the Dutchman got the better of his opponent time and again to reach the byline, and was one of the liveliest players on the pitch in the first half.
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The problem was that Malen - a right-footer playing on the left wing - took his time to find his passing range. Dortmund's first big chance only presented itself in the 33rd minute, when Malen had enough time to shift the ball onto his preferred foot. Jude Bellingham met the cross, but could not convert an opportunity with a goal probability of 24 percent.
Schalke head coach Frank Kramer duly responded at half-time by assigning more players to deal with Malen. Not that Dortmund were deterred. They continued to attack up the left-hand side with makeshift left-back Marius Wolf - another right-footed player - to the fore.
With over an hour gone and Schalke tiring, Terzic sent on Youssoufa Moukoko and Karim Adeyemi for the spent Malen and ineffective Anthony Modeste. Moukoko was efficiency personified: despite being on the ball just eight times, the teenage forward fired off four attempts on goal. Only Bellingham produced more across the entire game.
Dortmund's persistence was rewarded in the 79th minute. Wolf was able to get the ball onto his right foot and dig out a cross that found Moukoko. Not exactly renowned for his aerial prowess, the 17-year-old jumped 10 centimetres higher than Maya Yoshida to head the ball into the back of the net. Schalke's resistance was decisively broken.
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