Borussia Dortmund skipper, Marco Reus returned to action after a lengthy lay off and was among the scorers in the Bundesliga club’s end pre-season with victory over Sparta Rotterdam.
Reus, who finally overcome his injury setback featured for 70 minutes in BVB’s last pre-season friendly of the summer in a 2-1 win over Dutch Eredivisie side.
In the match dominated by the Bundesliga runners up against a team that ranked 11th in the 2019/20 Eredivisie standings when their maiden top-flight campaign was brought to a premature end by the coronavirus pandemic, the BVB had to wait till the second half before registering a goal.
First step in the right direction 💪 pic.twitter.com/P6Zo0bLmsk
— Marco Reus (@woodyinho) September 7, 2020
The manger, Lucien Favre was able to field a strong line-up despite the unavailability of some first-team players, who are on away on international duty. Another plus to the team was the return of Emre Can and Julian Brandt, who came from Germany’s senior squad to start the game.
While Reus was back in action for the first time since February, a loan signing from Real Madrid, Jesus Reinier also got the nod in the starting line up.
Borussia Dortmund Vs Sparta Rotterdam highlight
The only notable action in the first interval was a Reus free-kick and header from debutant Reinier. Apart from that, Dortmund was not close to scoring, giving the goalkeeper field day.
But the story changed in the second half, as Dortmund opened the scoring just after the hour mark through Reus.
The team’s winger, Brandt played Reus the ball on the edge of the Sparta box. Before scoring, the BVB skipper dribbled his way past three defenders and danced through the visitors’ penalty area.
The lead was doubled three minutes later through the substitute Immanuel Pherai. The attacking midfielder poked home from close range on the end of Marius Wolf’s cross from the left.
Sparta then reduced the deficit in the final 10 minutes. The Dutch team break away through the middle, with a great run that started from Emanuel Emegha. The 18-year-old striker reached the box before playing the ball to the right and the pass was later returned to him in front of goal to smash the ball home past Hitz.
The BVB made some change towards the end of the second half to give some players game time. Reus, Brandt and others came off ahead of Dortmund’s first competitive game of the season in the DFB Cup against Duisburg next Monday.
The Black-Yellows will begin their Bundesliga campaign at home to Borussia Mönchengladbach on 19 September.
Line-ups
Dortmund: Hitz – Piszczek (Hippe 46′), Hummels, Can – Passlack, Brandt (Pherai 64′), Dahoud (Hober 86′), Reyna (Collins 83′), Wolf – Reus (Gürpüz 70′), Reinier (Duman 46′)
Subs: Bakir, Reckert, Maloney, Schmeling
Out: Akanji, Bellingham, Delaney, Guerreiro, Haaland, Hazard, Meunier, Moukoko, Sancho, Witsel (all international duty), Schmelzer (knee), Schulz (calf) Zagadou (knee)
Coach: Lucien Favre
Sparta: van Leer (Okoye 46′) – Fortes, Abels, Heylen, Vriends, Pinto (Faye 46′) – Auassar, Duarte (Mijnans 72′) – Smeets (Emegha 72′), Thy (Gravenberch 46′), Rayhi (Martis 81′)
Subs: Unconfirmed
Out: Coremans (knee), Kharchouch (knee)
Coach: Henk Fraser
Match stats
- Reus recorded 11 goals and five assists in 19 Bundesliga appearances in 2019/20, having a direct goal involvement every 94 minutes.
- Dahoud played for the first time since injuring his knee in the 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich on 26 May.
- The 2019/20 Eredivisie season was cancelled in April due to the coronavirus outbreak, with Sparta ending up in 11th place with 33 points from 26 games.
- This was the first meeting between these teams, although Dortmund faced Sparta’s Rotterdam city rivals Feyenoord 4-2 in a January friendly earlier this year thanks to a brace from Raphael Guerreiro and goals from Gio Reyna and Chris Führich.
