The MSV Duisburg U19s are defeated 0:1 by Borussia Dortmund. After the win, the Dortmund side are now top of the A-Junioren Bundesliga West for the time being.

On matchday 11 of the A-Junioren Bundesliga West, Borussia Dortmund won 1:0 against MSV Duisburg. A Sunday shot by Rafael Lubach gave the Dortmund U19s the winning goal in the 85th minute.

BVB coach Mike Tullberg praised his team’s defensive performance in particular: “It was like it has been all season. We are very solid at the back, Duisburg’s chances come from individual mistakes. We don’t allow anything from our basic order. We know that we have to struggle with our chances at the front. If you have the chances and don’t score the goals, you have to be happy in the end that you make the 1:0 like that.”

For long stretches, BVB controlled the game, but the redemptive lead was a long time coming. For Tullberg, however, this was no surprise: “We lack a bit of quality in front of goal this year, you can see that. Nevertheless, I am very proud of this group. The boys are giving it their all, I can’t expect more from them. I don’t think the result is undeserved in the end, the chances were there.”

Duisburg started the match as the underdogs, but managed to make life difficult for the Dortmunders until the very end. “It was clear that BVB would play the game and we would try to be defensively secure. You can never get them out of the game 100 per cent, because they have a high individual quality. But I think we did really well,” said Engin Vural, coach of MSV’s U19s, praising his players after the final whistle.

MSV came out bravely and managed to keep the game open until the end. Looking at the chance ratio, Vural saw an even game for a long time: “In the first half, we had to survive one or two situations, but we also had two good counter-attacking chances ourselves. After the break, we had a good phase in which we became dangerous in front of the Dortmund goal. But in this phase we then get the red card, which is game-changing for me.” In the 64th minute of the game, Lennox Kern was sent off for spitting in the direction of the linesman after a disputed decision by the referees.

But even from this setback Duisburg did not let themselves be irritated and fought for every ball until the final whistle. For the MSV coach, a draw would not have been an undeserved result: “Even shortly before the end, we had another chance to equalise. But we just didn’t hit the target. We are proud of our performance, but of course we would have hoped for more from the result. That was one of the biggest tests for the players and they did a fantastic job. Of course there are things we have to improve, but we can definitely be satisfied.”

Now it’s off to the winter break for both teams before the final phase of the A-Jugend Bundesliga West begins in February.