Marco Reus haunts former club Gladbach as Dortmund rise to second

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Borussia Dortmund climbed back to second and dealt a further blow to Borussia Mönchengladbach's hopes of qualifying for Europe next season with Marco Reus haunting his former club in a 1-0 win at Borussia-Park.

Gladbach 0-1 Dortmund

Goal: 0-1 Reus (32')

Marco Reus, Mario Götze and Andre Schürrle started together for the first time in an attack-minded Dortmund team which also included the in-form Michy Batshuayi up top. It was a new look, and a rather exciting one at that with the trio behind the Belgian forward combining intuitively and ensuring Dortmund made the better start. As if scripted, they then combined for the opening goal. Götze's sweeping ball picked out Schürrle to the left of goal, and he had the vision to pick out Reus to his right, but nobody could have expected what came next. The 28-year-old sent in a shot which defied physics and looped over Yann Sommer, scraping the underside of the crossbar as it dipped in. Gladbach thought they had levelled just before the break when Jannik Vestergaard tucked in from close range, but Video Assist ruled that he was in an offside position when the ball was played in by Raul Bobadilla.

Gladbach made a bright start to the second half and a combination of Roman Bürki and a Sokratis Papastathopoulos goalline clearance denied first Lars Stindl and then Bobadilla. Reus almost had a second with a powerful volley which Sommer tipped behind instinctively, since he didn't have much time to see it. Stindl, Nico Elvedi and Bobadilla all wasted further chances as the game opened up, chances arriving at both ends. Batshuayi missed the chance to put the game beyond Gladbach as the game entered stoppage time, but it did not matter as Dortmund, with their defence reinforced following Ömer Toprak's introduction, and with Roman Bürki making more saves than in any other game this season, held on.

Watch: Dortmund's revitalised attack with Marco Reus!

Line-ups

Gladbach: Sommer – Oxford, Ginter, Vestergaard, Elvedi – Kramer, Zakaria (83' Cuisance) – Hofmann (73' Herrmann), Hazard, Stindl (c) – Bobadilla (79' Drmic)
Unused substitutes: Sippel, Egbo, Beyer, Grifo
Absentees: Johnson (back), Wendt (thigh), Villalba (thigh), Traore (thigh), Strobl (knee), Doucoure (thigh), Raffael (calf)
Coach: Dieter Hecking

Dortmund: Bürki – Piszczek, Sokratis, Akanji, Toljan – Weigl, Castro – Götze (74' Pulisic), Reus (c) (79' Dahoud), Schürrle (87' Toprak) – Batshuayi
Unused substitutes: Weidenfeller, Zagadou, Sahin, Isak
Absentees: Durm (ankle), Yarmolenko (tendon), Sancho (ankle), Guerreiro (muscular), Rode (pelvis), Philipp (knee), Kagawa (ankle)
Coach: Peter Stöger

Watch: Schürrle: "It was amazing!"

Match stats

    Gladbach have lost and failed to score in their last four league matches.Reus scored his first goal since 20 May 2017, 274 days ago (when he scored two against Werder Bremen).In nine games against his former club, Reus has now scored six goals.Reus registered 41 goals and 28 assists in 109 appearances in all competitions for Gladbach between 2009 and 2012.Dortmund have won their last six Bundesliga meetings with Gladbach, scoring 21 goals.Matthias Ginter turned out 102 times for Dortmund in all competitions before joining Gladbach in summer 2017.

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