Match Report: Dortmund 4-0 Schalke 04, as it happened
It has been close to two months since the German Bundesliga was suspended as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Bundesliga’s return is the first of any European major leagues restart. With games in the Bundesliga returning this weekend, much was expected from Dortmund especially when they were welcoming Schalke to the Signal Iduna Park.
Borussia Dortmund have began the restart in a brighter fashion after comfortably seeing off Schalke 04 in 4-0 score line, bridging the points gap between leaders Bayern Munich.
Lucien Favre named a strong eleven, giving Hummels, Akanji, Hazard, Brandt and Haaland a start against Schalke in the Revierderby. Surprisingly Manchester United and Chelsea target Jadon Sancho was benched.
David Wagner at the receiving end unleashed Harit, Raman and Caligiuri against Dortmund as the Schalke manager entered the game for his first victory after the restart.
After a fiercely contested first 29 minutes between Dortmund and Schalke, Erling Braut Håland put the former ahead, directing brilliantly Hazard’s low cross from the right flank into the net as the Norwegian grabbed his 10th Bundesliga goal in 9 games since scoring a hat-trick in his debut against Augsburg in January.
The home side continued to see most of possession, but they were stretched till stoppage time (45’ minute) to score their second goal.
Raphaël Guerreiro finished from the close range inside the box before Dortmund’s continual dominance from start of second half saw Thorgan Hazard on 48’ minute and Guerreiro again 15 minutes after Hazard’s striker added Dortmund’s third and four goals respectively.
Favre’s men despite their escalating performance were still marved for goals and continued to pile the pressure on the visitors for more goals, but the attacking lines, particularly in Haaland and Hazard looked blunt seeing the Schalke defence contained attacks later launched by Dortmund.
Favre was smart to point out the lapses in his front lines, taking Hazard off to the bench whilst Sancho made way to the game when it was eleven minutes to full time.
The Premier League target was quite preceding his introduction before his manager made two substitutions 8 minutes later, bringing in Mario Gotze and Marcel Schmelzer for Dahoud and Guerreiro respectively, three minutes to full time.
The changes had no impact on the score line as Dortmund thrashed Schalke 4-0 in an empty Signal Iduna Park, cutting the points gap to only one as BVB demonstrate a classy chase for the title this season after resumption of the Bundesliga.
