The pressure on Dortmund coach Sahin is mounting after the latest disappointments. The 0-1 defeat in Wolfsburg in the second round of the DFB Cup does nothing to ease the tension – quite the contrary.
Borussia Dortmund’s crisis has deepened. After recent disappointments in the Bundesliga and Champions League, BVB was also knocked out of the DFB Cup in the second round. The 0-1 (0-0, 0-0) defeat after extra time at VfL Wolfsburg further increases the pressure on Dortmund’s new coach Nuri Sahin.
Jonas Wind scored the decisive goal in the 117th minute. Bitter results, many injuries, no improvement in play: a lot is going on at last season’s Champions League finalists at the moment.
Sahin is getting a taste of the harsh realities of life as a professional coach these days. With two right-backs and two center-backs missing, Sahin had to pull national team players Emre Can and Pascal Groß from midfield to defense in Wolfsburg. Alongside the injured Marcel Sabitzer, the bench was filled with talented players aged between 18 and 21.
Before the season, Dortmund had deliberately opted for a small squad with very little depth, especially in defense. That is now coming back to haunt them. Nevertheless, Sahin once again expressed his conviction that he is on the right track: “When you become coach of Borussia Dortmund, everything is judged twice and three times as harshly – especially in the spotlight. I have no problem with that,” the 36-year-old told ARD.
The evening in front of 24,806 spectators could have been much more relaxed for the BVB coach if Maximilian Beier had scored his first goal for Borussia in the 14th minute. After a beautiful through ball from Nico Schlotterbeck, the €30 million signing from 1899 Hoffenheim ran alone toward the Wolfsburg goal but shot the ball against the post.
After that, however, it was a repeat of the Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen games: Wolfsburg are best at getting in the way of a better-equipped opponent. And so, by half-time, they had even created more dangerous chances than BVB through Patrick Wimmer (20th minute) and Mohammed Amoura (32nd minute).
After the break, Dortmund initially came out of the dressing room stronger. In the 56th minute, however, they were lucky that former Wolfsburg player Felix Nmecha only received a yellow card and not a red card for his foul on Wimmer. Instead of Nmecha, the Austrian had to leave the field injured shortly afterwards (70th minute). He was unable to continue playing due to a wound on his leg.
It was precisely during this period after the foul that BVB enjoyed their most dominant spell. A header from Guirassy was skillfully tipped over the bar by goalkeeper Kamil Grabara (65). A shot from Gittens was blocked at the last moment (68).
The combative but limited Wolfsburg side only picked up again in the 80th minute. Jonas Wind (86) had the best chance of the second half for VfL. Tiago Tomas (93) hit the crossbar at the start of extra time. Both strikers had only just come on as substitutes, which showed that Wolfsburg had much more to offer from the bench than the BVB, who were weakened by injuries, and Wind’s goal in extra time knocked Dortmund out of the cup.