2-1 at SSVg Velbert, BVB U23 climb to third | OneFootball

Borussia Dortmund’s second team confirmed their good form again on Wednesday evening. With a 2-1 win in the rescheduled match away at SSVg Velbert, BVB’s U23 celebrated their sixth victory in the last seven games and climbed to third place in the Regionalliga West with four matchdays remaining.

Against the newly promoted side, who are hovering above the relegation zone, BVB made no fewer than six changes compared to the 3-2 win over SV Rödinghausen at the weekend. With Mario Pejazic, Filippo Mane and Luca Reggiani, three quarters of the back four were new. In addition, Babis Drakas, Ousmane Diallo and Mathis Albert came into the starting lineup in attack. Almugera Kabar, Jonas Feddersen, Elias Benkara, Arne Wessels, Bennedikt Wüstenhagen and veteran Michael Eberwein, who was absent due to the birth of his daughter, had to make way.

After a fairly uneventful opening phase, BVB goalkeeper Silas Ostrzinski gifted the hosts a major chance with a costly misplaced pass, which Max Machtemes used to put the team in 16th place ahead. Boosted by that goal, Velbert created more chances but missed the opportunity to score a second, and BVB punished them just before the break when Pejazic finished off a long ball from Tony Reitz to make it 1-1.

Drakas scores the winner

In the second half, BVB looked slightly improved, but still not really convincing. Nevertheless, Babis Drakas made it 2-1 in the 56th minute after being set up by Pejazic. Because Diallo and substitute Wessels failed to put the game to bed with good chances, the match remained open until the final whistle, before Borussia finally secured the three points.

Photo: IMAGO

“Velbert played bravely going forward, just as they have throughout the entire second half of the season. The 1-1 at halftime was very fortunate, because we didn’t carry out what we had planned with the ball. We took far too long to adapt to the situation,” coach Daniel Rios said on the club website, clearly not entirely satisfied with the performance, though he was with the result in the end: “We did better in the second half. After the 2-1, we controlled the game. But there were still phases in which Velbert could have made it 2-2. We’re happy about the three points because we know how difficult it is to get points against Velbert.”

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