Dortmund victorious in Freiburg
Freiburg - Borussia Dortmund returned to winning ways in the Bundesliga with a 2-0 success at SC Freiburg.
Winter's here
In spite of difficult conditions at the MAGE Solar Stadion, the reigning champions pressed on from Wednesday's UEFA Champions League win against Real Madrid thanks to second-half goals from Neven Subotic and Mario Götze. Freiburg will no doubt rue a string of missed opportunities in the opening period, but ultimately Christian Streich's side ran out of steam as the visitors sewed up a deserved three points.
The flurries of snow down in the Black Forest gave the surest sign yet that the winter season is upon us and, with the pitch coated in powder, Dortmund struggled to implement their favoured passing game. Freiburg duly enjoyed the better of the opening phases, with Daniel Caligiuri unlucky to see his header blocked by Mario Götze before Lukasz Piszczek's misdirected header came back off his own post.
Dortmund's only response was a Marcel Schmelzer free-kick which Mats Hummels came within in an inch of converting. Freiburg's equivalent was far more convincing when Max Kruse floated one in for Fallou Diagne, but the Senegalese defender headed clear of the bar despite arriving completely unmarked before Roman Weidenfeller.
Subotic scores
The latter needed to make up for his defenders' shortcomings minutes later as Julian Schuster raced in behind. The visiting captain did about enough to put the midfielder off, but it was further sign of Freiburg's dominance and the puffed cheeks of BVB boss Jürgen Klopp told their own story heading in at the interval.
Conversely it was all Dortmund after the break. Piszczek had his finish deflected wide from a Reus pull-back, before a last-ditch tackle from Diagne denied Robert Lewandowski a seventh career goal against Freiburg. Götze then really should have done better when he put another Reus centre over with the goal gaping, but Dortmund's reward eventually arrived in the form of Subotic's glancing header.
Götze's cool finish
Relieved at the breakthrough, BVB could have added to their advantage but for Lewandowski's strike straight at Oliver Baumann. The titleholders didn't have it all their own way, though. Weidenfeller scrambled superbly to tackle the free-standing Erik Jendrisek after another defensive mix-up, before Subotic's timely intervention prevented Cedrick Makiadi's advances on goal.
Still, by the latter stages it was clear that Klopp's star ensemble had a grip on the game and could well have been further in front by the time Götze doubled the advantage with a cool finish six minutes from the end. Piszczek and Julian Schieber wasted chances either side of that second goal, but it was all by the by as Dortmund maintained fourth spot in the table.
Line-ups and statistics
Andy James
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