Empty stadium without fans, (BVB army) it seemed more like practice session where there are no fans and you can clearly hear each and every sound.
Line-up
Both the teams took initial 10 minutes to settle down, which most of us expected because it has been more than two months that these players have played any competitive match. Many times in the first half Burki (GK) tried to find Haaland becuase of his height but Schalke defender Sane was able to deny the long ball for most part of the half. Achraf Hakimi played extremely well in the first half and most of the move came from the right hand side with Hakimi and Brandt. The first goals of the match(29 minute) was scored by Haaland. It was swift move created by Julian Brandt,(pre-assist type move) and thorgan Hazard put the ball into the area and Haaland finished it in style. The second goal came in the last minute of the the first half. Again Julian Brandt was involved and he assisted to Raphael Guerreiro.That was also a very good goal. All and all the start of the half wasn't very entertaining but after the first 15 minutes, the match was started in real sense.
Second half
On the contrary of the first half, initial 20 minutes of the second half was fast paced and Dortmund tried to kill the match within an hour mark and they succeed in doing so. This time though, in the 48 minute, julian Brandt assisted to thorgan Hazard who was quite impressive in this match. Everybody talks about Jadon Sancho assists number but Hazard also have 11 assist to his name and 6 goals. Because of being down by 3 to nil Schalke started to play more forward but instead of scoring they conceded a goal, there was huge space in Schalke half and Haaland put the ball for Raphael Guerreiro and this goal was quite impressive because he was off balanced while he was shooting and the shot he scored in the goal was curling and that gives the idea how good was that goal. After that goal Dortmund slowed down the pace of the game, while they were still trying to counter.
Overall Performance
Possession BVB: 59.6 - S04: 40.4
Total shots BVB: 11- S04: 10
Pass success % BVB:85- S04: 81
This game lacked competitiveness because when a team is up by 4 goals to nil in an hour mark, you don't tend to watch the whole match but I was so excited to watch football that I watched full match. There wasn't any great performance put forth by Schalke they were not performing at the level they are expected to, their young goalkeeper Schubert was very poor to watch, the third goal scored by Thorgan Hazard should have been saved.
Now the pressure would be on Bayern to win their next match against their city rival Union Berlin becuase Dortmund are just one point behind them played one match extra than Bayern.
The best part of the match was from 20- 65 minutes these 45 minutes were played at some good level.
Best player of the match
Without any doubt,
Raphael Guerreiro. He scored two goals and was involved most when BVB was going forward.
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