Borussia Dortmund 1-0 Hertha Berlin – Dortmund narrow the gap back to 7 points on Bayern Munich thanks to a tidy goal from Emre Can against an underwhelming Hertha Berlin side.
First half:
The First half was a game of very few chances for both sides in a tightly contested game where Hertha Berlin stood strong defensively against a flat Dortmund side that looked to be missing star striker Erling Haaland despite netting 6 last week away at Paderborn.
Second half:
The game opened up more in the Second half as both sides had chances early on especially Jadon Sancho who missed a sitter with the goal gaping to keep the score at 0-0, a miss that surprised everyone.
Hertha Berlin’s best opportunity not only of the half but of the game fell to Alexander Esswein who was put through by Vladimir Darida however in a big moment Esswein fired his shot wide of the post to keep the score at 0-0.
Just a couple of minutes later and the deadlock was broken by Borussia Dortmund’s Emre Can who finished a nice Borussia Dortmund move off to make it 1-0 as Can scored his first goal for Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park to put the hosts one up.
Borussia Dortmund did have a penalty appeal turned down late on when Emre Can’s volley appeared to strike the arm of Anga Dedryck Boyata however the referee and VAR both said no penalty as the ball was struck to close to Boyata for him to move out the way.
Borussia Dortmund should have doubled their lead with just a minute of normal time to play however Jadon Sancho who was the architect of the move had his close range effort well saved by the feet of Rune Jarstein to give Hertha Berlin a little hope in the remaining moments.
Full time
Match rating – 4/10
Man of the match:
Emre Can – The match winner put in an all-round fine display in defence and was a constant threat going forward, a fine day for the German.
Fascinating facts:
This was Emre Can’s first home Bundesliga goal for Borussia Dortmund
Hertha Berlin now haven’t won at Dortmund since a 1-2 win in 2013
This was Hertha Berlin’s first away defeat since November 24th 2019
This was Hertha Berlin’s first defeat since Bruno Labbadia took over
Borussia Dortmund have now kept clean sheets in 5 of their last 6 home Bundesliga games
Sam’s match reports 