Borussia Dortmund won for the eighth time in a row on Friday night. A man who shouldn’t actually be on the pitch reveals the secret of success.

A few minutes after the game, Alex Meyer was completely unaware of what had just happened. Immediately before kick-off, Borussia Dortmund’s substitute keeper had replaced the injured Gregor Kobel in the starting eleven. And this in the top match against RB Leipzig, of all things.

His composure certainly came from the fact that BVB came away victorious 2-1 after a very playful and a rather restrained second half.

“For me it was quite turbulent. In the last action in the warm-up, Greg (Kobel, ed.) went in,” Meyer told DAZN, explaining, “For me, it was the jump into the deep end. The team did a great job. We defended very passionately, played really good football in the first half. In the second half Leipzig came on, we were more defensive and defended well.”

For a long time RB remained without clear chances in the second half despite increasing pressure. Even after Emil Forsberg’s goal, for which Meyer could do nothing. In injury time, the 31-year-old, who last stood between the posts in a competitive match in November 2022, was finally challenged twice in a very short space of time. He withstood the pressure.

“That’s my job,” Meyer said. “I have to be there when I’m needed. Fortunately, the team made it easy for me. I came in and enjoyed that, playing again after a long time. It was a nice night.”

It was even a record night. BVB won eight Bundesliga games in a row in one season for the first time since 2011/2022, and ten across competitions. The defence is secure, the offence is producing goals like a conveyor belt. What is the secret?

“It’s the defence that’s getting us into the game,” Meyer analysed and went into detail: “You can see that everyone is fighting for each other. If someone is outplayed, the other one is there and wants to make up for the mistake. We are not too shy for any metre. First of all, we are fighting. We lacked that a bit in the first half of the year, and we’ve been working on that. We know that we can do something with the ball.”

However, this does not mean that Dortmund is satisfied. Not even in view of the three-point lead BVB has gained over FC Bayern Munich, at least for one evening.

“We have to remain humble, keep working,” said Meyer. Both he and his team have done quite well with that so far.