Borussia Dortmund overcome Union Berlin 2-1

Today Dortmund played out a 2-1 victory with goals coming from Donny Malen 28' and Youssoufa Moukoko 79' with an assist coming from Rapha Guerreiro putting him first in the BuLi with 11 assists on the campaign.

Image via BVB

The game started poorly as Dortmund and specifically the defense failed to escape the Union press multiple times throughout the starting 10 minutes. The team did start to get into the flow of the game, escaping multiple situations with the high press. After that Union went back to the style of football they're used to, dropping back inviting the attack and breaking with pace on the counter. That plan failed as a ball across the box was put in by Donny Malen who was able to get there in time.

Kevin Berhens grabbed Union the equalizer in the 61' off of poor ariel prowess from Niklas Sule and poor tracking from Sule as well, but while attacking towards the famous Yellow Wall in the sudtribune Youssoufa Moukoko got his goal in his 50th appearance, running over to the bench to celebrate the eventual winner.

Image via RN

Match Ratings

Starters

Gregor Kobel - 8/10, not tested much but had some good saves and played out of the back decently well

Julian Ryerson - 8/10, played very well with his fast runs down the wings and physicality and providing crosses to Sebastian Haller

Niklas Sule - 6.5/10, at fault for the lone Union goal and did make some defensive errors but was sound on the ball and crucial in playing out of the back, but still not his best

Mats Hummels - 7.5/10, good defensively and like his partner in the back was also crucial in playing out of the back and settling play down, he also surprisingly wasn't shy bursting into the midfield on rare occasions

Rapha Guerreiro - 9/10, yet another assist for the Portuguese magician who did slide back to the left back position with Marius Wolf out due to illness, he made a crucial tackle in the box with a brilliant piece of defending as well as being brilliant on ball

Jude Bellingham - 9/10, it looks like the little rest he got midweek helped as he looked as good as usual in the midfield, pressing brilliantly, defending well, and pulling the strings in the midfield with many good passes

Emre Can - 10/10, a rare ten out of ten rating but it cannot be understated how important he is defensively winning multiple key challenges, and being sound on the ball, he may not have flashy passes or look like Ronaldinho or Jude on the ball but he gets the job done with his simple passing

Julian Brandt - 7/10, still not back to his pre injury form but you could see he was slowly starting to get it back, however he did miscontrol two clear chances at goal causing possesion to be lost in key spots but passed well and was key in creating chances

Donny Malen - 8.5/10, the scorer of the first goal and creator of many chances he looks like he's found form of late, which is great as we enter a key stretch towards the end of the season

Karim Adeyemi - 8/10, was quiet at certain points of the game but I missed his pace and runs in behind the defense, he was certainly key in multiple chances and troubled the Union defense always

Sébastien Haller - 7.5/10, no goal for Haller today but his hold up play is so important in the game and his ability to get back defensively off of crosses to assist in clearing the ball is also something that isn't talked about often, but he certainly plays his role

Edin Terzic - 9/10, adjusting to completely different play styles of teams isn't easy, going from a high pressing team like Leipzig to playing against an Union team with a low defensive line and direct play, but he handled it well, he made the correct changes and played Brandt in the position of a ten for the first time in a while, his subs also made an impact obviously with one scoring the winner, the one being Moukoko of course

Subs

Jamie Bynoe Gittens - 7/10, played well for the time he was in but not a lot to go off of

Youssoufa Moukoko - 9/10, for the time he was in the game he was a constant threat, with good one twos and dribbling as well as pace and more he had a good stretch in this game and obviously he scored the winner off of great effort

Marco Reus - 7/10, played decent but didn't get a lot of minutes to really impress but he always manages to play well

Salih Ozcan - 7/10, played his part which was to be a defensive presence and string some passes together in his limited minutes

Dortmund play their next game away to Stuttgart on Saturday, while title rivals Bayern play host to Hoffenheim