The pressure on Dortmund coach Sahin is mounting after the latest disappointments. The 1-0 defeat in Wolfsburg in the second round of the DFB Cup does not ease the situation – quite the opposite.
The crisis at Borussia Dortmund has intensified further. After the latest disappointments in the Bundesliga and in the Champions League, BVB were 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 the new Dortmund coach Nuri Sahin.
The decisive goal was scored by Jonas Wind in the 117th minute. Bitter results, many injuries, no improvement in performance: Last season’s Champions League finalist is facing a lot at the moment.
Sahin is currently experiencing the hardships of being a professional trainer in an unfiltered way. With two right-backs and two central defenders missing, Sahin had to pull the two national players Emre Can and Pascal Groß back from midfield to defense in Wolfsburg. In addition to the injured Marcel Sabitzer, only talented players aged 18 to 21 were left on the bench.
Dortmund had deliberately opted before the season for a small squad, with very little depth in defense in particular. That is now backfiring. Nevertheless, Sahin once again expressed great conviction in his approach: “When you become the coach of Borussia Dortmund, everything is evaluated twice and three times over – including the spotlight. I don’t have a problem with that,” said the 36-year-old on 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-euro signing from 1899 Hoffenheim ran alone towards the Wolfsburg goal, but only managed to shoot the ball against the post.
But after that, it was clear to see why Wolfsburg are doing so well this season: they are great at getting in the way of a better-staffed opponent. And so they had even more dangerous actions than BVB, with goals from Patrick Wimmer (20th) and Mohammed Amoura (32nd).
After the break, Dortmund initially came out of the dressing room better again. In the 56th minute, however, they were lucky that former Wolfsburg player Felix Nmecha only received a yellow card for his foul on Wimmer and not a red card. Instead of Nmecha, the Austrian had to leave the pitch injured a little later (70th). He could no longer continue playing due to his wound on his leg.
It was during this period after the foul that BVB had their most dominant spell. Goalkeeper Kamil Grabara expertly directed Guirassy’s header over the bar (65). A shot from Gittens was blocked at the last moment (68).
Wolfsburg, who put up a strong fight but had limited creativity, only turned up again after the 80th minute. Jonas Wind (86′) had the best chance of the second half for VfL. Tiago Tomas (93rd minute) hit the crossbar at the beginning of extra time. Both strikers had only just been substituted on, which also showed that Wolfsburg were able to bring on significantly more from the bench than the weakened BVB side on this long evening – and ensured Dortmund’s elimination from the cup in extra time through Wind.