As in the league, Dortmund also lose in the cup at VfB. The runners-up played too badly – and were punished. The first title is gone. First Guirassy scores again, then Silas.

Borussia Dortmund’s probably best chance of winning the title this season is gone. BVB were eliminated in the last 16 of the DFB Cup after a deserved 2-0 (0-0) defeat at VfB Stuttgart on Wednesday.

Top striker Serhou Guirassy (54th minute) and substitute Silas (77th) scored in front of 54,200 spectators for the Swabians, who celebrated their fourth competitive win in a row and will take plenty of confidence into their upcoming league clash with Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday.

Dortmund, who have been disappointing for long stretches and are already ten points behind leaders Leverkusen in the Bundesliga, will be fighting for important points in the battle for the Champions League places against RB Leipzig on Saturday.

BVB faced Stuttgart’s front two of Guirassy and Deniz Undav with a three-man back line, with captain Emre Can defending on the right. Unlike in the 2-1 defeat in the league three-and-a-half weeks ago, in which they had played miserably, the visitors managed to largely prevent Stuttgart’s big chances, at least for a while. Undav missed the best opportunity for VfB, who dominated but were initially too rarely effective, with a header in the first half (24′). Shortly before the break, a ball loss by Dortmund’s Jamie Bynoe-Gittens went unpunished.

Speaking of losing the ball, the runners-up made far too many of them in front of the eyes of national coach Julian Nagelsmann. As a result, BVB hardly put their quick attacking players in the spotlight. Marcel Sabitzer was unlucky with a shot that hit the crossbar (20′), otherwise Borussia did not get much going forward.

Ex-captain Marco Reus, Julian Brandt and Niclas Füllkrug had to sit on the bench three days after the 1-1 draw in Leverkusen. Füllkrug replaced the stricken Youssoufa Moukoko in the 24th minute, but hardly got any usable crosses in the center of the attack.

BVB coach Edin Terzic reacted and brought on Brandt for the second half to provide more offensive relief. Ramy Bensebaini also came on for full-back Marius Wolf, who had twisted his ankle in the first half. However, Stuttgart remained the dominant team. In the 51st minute, Guirassy failed to beat visitors’ keeper Gregor Kobel from close range.

Shortly afterwards, the Swiss goalkeeper had no chance against Guinea’s international striker and put the ball through his legs. It was Guirassy’s 18th competitive goal of the season. In the league duel, he had scored the decisive goal from the penalty spot.

VfB almost made it 2:0 straight away, but Kobel made another brilliant save from Enzo Millot (58′). At the other end, Bynoe-Gittens’ supposed equalizer was rightly disallowed for offside (60′). Borussia’s great final offensive came to an end, but instead Stuttgart scored their second goal: Joker Silas calmly slotted the ball into the right corner