A brilliant first-half strike on Sunday saw Marco Reus grab his first Bundesliga goal since May last year to secure a 1-0 win for Borussia Dortmund at Borussia Moenchengladbach in a match played on an atrocious pitch.
The two teams were forced to play on a highly uneven surface in Moenchengladbach after poor weather had badly affected the pitch at Borussia-Park.
There were chances for both Lars Stindl and Raul Bobadilla early on, but the pitch remained the focus of attention, as Andre Schuerrle appeared to slip and hurt himself.
Photo: AP
Schuerrle recovered to set up Reus as Borussia Dortmund took the lead against the run of play on 32 minutes.
Picking up a pinpoint long pass from Mario Goetze, Schuerrle squared the ball to Reus, whose dipping shot glanced off the crossbar on its way in.
“I actually wanted to hit it further to the left, but the main thing is that the ball went in,” Reus told Sky. “We had to scrap today and we have a lot of work ahead of us.”
Reus has missed most of the season with a cruciate ligament tear and had not been on the score sheet for Dortmund since scoring a brace on the final day of last season.
Jannik Vestergaard found the net for Moenchengladbach just before halftime, but was judged to be offside by the video assistant referee.
Thorgan Hazard should have equalized moments later, darting into the area from the left wing before slicing the ball wide.
The hosts continued to push forward after the break, chances falling to both Denis Zakaria and Matthias Ginter, before Sokratis denied Bobadilla with a goal-line clearance on 55 minutes.
As the second half wore on, Roman Buerki was forced into a string of saves, denying Stindl, Bobadilla and Nico Elvedi to keep Dortmund ahead.
At the other end of the pitch, Reus saw his fizzing half-volley beaten away by Yann Sommer.
Earlier in the day, Mario Gomez’s goal was enough to secure a first away win of the season for VfB Stuttgart and inflict a first home defeat since October last year on Augsburg.
The veteran striker gave Stuttgart the lead just before the half-hour mark.
After Erik Thommy’s free-kick was blocked by the defensive wall, Gomez pounced on the loose ball and swept it into the bottom corner.
Michael Gregoritsch appeared to equalize for Augsburg 10 minutes later, but he too was correctly ruled offside after a two-minute long consultation with the video assistant referee.
“We should really have won by three or four goals today, but we showed amazing character and we’re going in the right direction,” Gomez told Sky.
The win lifts Stuttgart four points clear of the bottom three, while Dortmund moved into second place ahead of RB Leipzig’s visit to Eintracht Frankfurt yesterday.
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