BVB U23 held 1-1 by Lotte, Pejazic rescues a point | OneFootball

After the away match at Sportfreunde Siegen had to be canceled the previous weekend due to weather conditions, Borussia Dortmund II started the new year on Friday evening with a slight delay – and with a 1-1 draw against Sportfreunde Lotte, after which coach Daniel Rios’s team remains in fifth place in the Regionalliga West for the time being.

While the winter signings Leroy Kwadwo, Kevin Mutove, and Mario Pejazic all started on the bench, as did the promoted talents Mathis Albert and Samuele Inacio, BVB—without the departed key players Ben Hüning (Rot-Weiss Essen) and Jordi Paulina (Fortuna Düsseldorf)—needed some time to find their way into the match. The visitors took advantage of this and took the lead as early as the twelfth minute, with Max Ritter scoring after a corner.

Triple substitution brings new energy

BVB subsequently found it difficult to create chances against a compact opponent who also kept trying to threaten on the counter. Only after just under an hour, when new players Albert, Inacio, and Mutove came onto the pitch in a triple substitution, did Borussia become more dangerous. In particular, 16-year-old Albert was a constant source of trouble and ultimately paved the way for the equalizer scored by fellow substitute and new signing Pejazic.

BVB, however, was unable to score a second goal, partly because their play became too uncontrolled. “After the 1-1, things got too wild in my opinion. At times, we played forward too quickly, which suits Lotte,” criticized coach Rios on the club’s website, but overall he was not dissatisfied despite the missed victory: “It was a fair 1-1 if you look at the full 90 minutes. I think we did well in the first half. We controlled the game and had our chances. After a set piece, we were 1-0 down. Otherwise, we didn’t allow anything in the first half. In the second half, we continued from there.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.