Late Guirassy strike ensures Dortmund secure fully-deserved three points
A late winner from striker Serhou Guirassy helped Nuri Sahin's BVB overcome a St. Pauli equalizer that threatened to negate their dominant performance.
| Serhou Guirassy | Alex Grimm, Getty Images |
Nuri Sahin's Borussia Dortmund have preserved their perfect home record against the Hanseatic city-state side of St. Pauli, turning a dominant performance into a 2-1 win over Alexander Blessin's Kiezkicker. Sahin's team survived a late comeback scare from the guests, ultimately ensuring that the scoresheet matched the xG via a late Serhou Guirassy strike.
The two opening formations of the respective coaches conformed to the pre-match projections, though the underdog guests did immediately snap back into a 5-4-1 when it came time to defend. Dortmund were able to punch through early via a bit of trickery from Julian Brandt that saw Guirassy send a 6th-minute effort wide. After that, there wasn't much doing from the hosts at Signal Iduna Park.
Sahin's Schwarzgelen were unable to penetrate. Ramy Bensebaini prevented the Hanseatic side from snatching an goal against the run-of-play in the 16th when he bailed out Emré Can's treacherous back-pass with a last-ditch-tackle on Oladapo Afolayan in front of goal. St. Pauli thought they did manage to go ahead at the half-hour-mark, but a Morgan Guilavogui free-kick goal was disallowed for offside.
After a languid first-half, Dortmund snatched the opener shortly before half time. Bensebaini - who had blown his mark on the 30th-minute no-goal - rose high to head home a Pascal Groß chip for the 43rd-minute 1-0. Brandt nearly doubled the advantage just before the break, but sent his own header wide at 45+1. There would be one change from Sahin ahead of the restart.
Despite his important role in the opening goal, Sahin opted to replace Groß with Jamie Gittens at the half. The young Englishman took up Marcel Sabitzer's position up front while the Austrian moved back to his natural position in midfield. The Westphalians continue to struggle offensively and nearly conceded an equalizer via another poor Can back-pass shortly after the hour-mark.
Guirassy, Gittens, and Malen all missed out on a chance at scoring with slightly ill-timed touches during a sequence in the 64th. The favorites were then given a harsh reminder of the fact that small pinpricks do not count on the scoreboard when St. Pauli defender Eric Smith blasted in a cracker from the edge of the area in the 78th. The goal was allowed to stand in spite of the fact that Afolayan was slightly screening BVB keeper Gregor Kobel.
Dortmund were nevertheless able to make their dominance of the match count once again when Guirassy notched the 2-1 in the 82nd. Gittens set up his teammate brilliantly with a gorgeous dribble past St. Pauli substitute Adam Dzwigala. At the start of injury time, Dzwingala unfortunately missed out on a chance to redeem himself by skying a close-range effort out at 90+1.