Borussia Dortmund are derby winners. Finally and without a doubt It was the best game of the season! Quite frankly it was a demolition derby, but in the first half Dortmund drove a bumper car. But late in the game Pierre Emerick Aubameyang found his keys to the bat mobile and fired the Schalke defense to pieces.
Oh, what a day, what a derby. It was hardly ever this one sided.
Nuri Sahin – “A derby was seldomly dominated by one side as we did today.”
31-3 shots. The blues hadn’t even a single shot on target. Since shot statistics are gathered, Dortmund never rallied up so many shots in a derby – and Schalke never had so few shots in a game EVER (since 1992). Oh how frustrating this must be for Schalke fans. How disappointing it must be to see your side fail as spectacularly as theirs in the most important game of the season.
By all means, FC Schalke hadn’t had a bad team on the pitch, despite all the injuries, but they were completely annihilated by Borussia Dortmund. Anyone who complained about Klaas Jan Huntelaar’s ban-reduction, here is his heatmap.
Hilarious.
Mats Hummels -“I think everyone can be happy today. We can be happy because of our great performance and Schalke can be happy they only conceded three. It was again adventurous how many chances were misfired, we could have been up five – nil at half time already.”
Football is a passion because it includes a lot of suffering. For Schalke fans it was 92 minutes of suffering plus all the reeling from the loss kind of pain, for Dortmund fans it were 77 minutes of suffering. Yes, the game was really enjoyable to watch because Borussia Dortmund were awesome. The played football that was easy on the eye, they attacked and attacked, great combination play with a lot of ingenuity – everything Schalke fans haven’t seen from their team in a very long time. BUT, the black and yellows wasted a hand counted three million chances. The agony of being so dominant, yet so prone to a sucker punch was killing me and probably every other person fond of Borussia Dortmund, too. A heart palpitation causing 27 shots were needed until Aubameyang FINALLY found the back of the net.
Luckily, the chance wasting festival stopped eventually and the derby had a happy end, although it’s kind of sad, that BVB didn’t win by 10 goals. Then again, maybe it was for the best to score so late in the game. That way Schalke stayed in their passive delirium until it was too late for them.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan – “Today I felt something, I don’t know what it was, but it was something positive.”
Whatever Mkhitaryan felt, I hope he can preserve that feeling, because the Armenian had an amazing game, which he crowned with the oh, so important goal. The Batman and Robin goal celebration was nice and funny, but it was still beaten by a Mkhitaryan goal celebration – since it was his first of the season. The Armenian was nearly squished by his teammates. One goal maybe won’t do the trick to flick the switch in Mkhitaryan’s head, but it was a derby goal, which counts thrice for a confidence boost. It would be awesome, if it helps to turn around Miki’s season.
It was a game, where every player played exceptionally well, but that pass from Nuri Sahin to send Reus into position in the 56′ minute was superb. A vintage Sahin pass from the old times. Shinji Kagawa also had a few great through balls to set up his teammates. The one of in the 3′ minute, which had Aubameyang free on goal for the first time of the game also deserves mention.
And Oliver Kirch. Since he wasn’t much tested defensively, it remains to be seen how well he replaces Lukasz Piszczek, but his offensive play is very sharp. He brings a bit of play making elements to the right flank, playing the simple (looking) passes, yet efficient passes. And of course we cannot forget Batman and Robin. Both appeared on the score sheet in each of Dortmund’s last four wins. It’s easy to say Aubameyang and Reus are running the show for BVB now and they are a great link on and off the pitch
For now everything is right in the Dortmund camps. Four wins on the run in the Bundesliga and the current form suggest that this streak won’t stop in Hamburg. Of course, Dortmund are still a bit inconsistent and one must be very careful with such expressions, but hey – derby winner euphoria!
It’s 5 points to the relegation spots, but it’s hard to believe that this team will have a relapse now. Maybe they pull off the miracle and make up the 7 points to FC Schalke, who don’t look too stable currently. It’s still a long shot, but what would be football without hope and dreams? Either way, it was the best derby performance ever from Borussia Dortmund and that alone is cause to celebrate, who would have thought it would happen in this patchy season? The guys certainly made amends.
The 3-0 win also has the nice side effect of putting the club from Herne-West into turmoil once again. The Schalke-camp is already split about di Matteo and his boring idea of football. May they struggle for a bit more.
