Borussia Dortmund’s U23 celebrated a victory against third division leaders SV Elversberg. This means that staying in the class is very close.

Borussia Dortmund’s U23 has taken a huge step towards staying in the relegation zone. BVB won its home match against leaders SV Elversberg 2-0 on Saturday afternoon, showing coach Jan Zimmermann’s team reacted to its 2-1 loss at SC Verl at the start of the week and making sure it will stay in the relegation zone.

Elversberg, on the other hand, continues to stumble: The league leaders, who were so outstanding for long stretches of the season, remained winless for the fourth time in a row, but still have a comfortable cushion on the relegation places.

The visitors got off to the better start, with goalkeeper Marcel Lotka having to fend off a dangerous chance for the first time after just under nine minutes. Dortmund needed some time to get into the game, but became more active as time went on.

That paid off after 36 minutes when Justin Njinmah made it 1-0. The eleventh goal of the season from Dortmund’s top scorer was preceded by a counterattack after an Elversberg corner.

The team went into the break with a somewhat flattering lead, although the goal gave BVB a noticeable sense of security. After the restart, BVB stayed in it, from the SVE now came less. Njinmah had the 2:0 on the foot (53.). His offensive colleague Falko Michel did better, heading a deflected Njinmah shot into the net from close range for 2:0 (61).

A little later, Njinmah missed the third goal (68.). However, this did not take revenge as the Elversberger failed to connect – and BVB celebrated the third victory from the past four games, after which the preservation of the class is probably only a formality.