Borussia Dortmund vs. Hannover: Winners and Losers from Bundesliga Game
Borussia Dortmund beat Hannover 96 1-0 on Matchday 21 of the 2015/16 Bundesliga season at home in Signal Iduna Park on Saturday.
The hosts had to make do without star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who missed the game after picking up a knock to his calf against VfB Stuttgart in midweek. Marco Reus again led the line, with Gonzalo Castro replacing Aubameyang on the wing.
Shinji Kagawa returned to the lineup in place of Erik Durm, which pushed Henrikh Mkhitaryan to the wing as well, while Neven Subotic made a rare appearance in central defence.
As for the visitors, they, as expected, didn't line up in their usual formation with a diamond in midfield and two out-and-out strikers but rather in a concentrated 4-1-4-1/4-3-2-1 hybrid with three defensive-minded midfielders. Artur Sobiech, who scored a brace in the first meeting between the two sides this season, started up front.
Dortmund came out firing, with two chances to open the scoring in the first quarter of an hour. Ron-Robert Zieler and the crossbar denied Reus the goal, respectively.
After that initial period, however, Hannover defended fairly well, as the Black and Yellows lacked precision and directness in the final third. The 96ers themselves, though, didn't cash in on some inaccuracies in buildup play on part of the hosts.
Defensive midfielder Andre Hoffmann had their only true goalscoring opportunity of the entire game in the 41st minute, but his short-range header didn't trouble Roman Burki too much.
The second half didn't produce a better performance from Dortmund. Mkhitaryan scored the game's only goal with a cracking shot after a fine dribble in the 57th minute—BVB's first goal from outside the penalty box in the Bundesliga this season.
Not much else happened in the match. Hannover tried to push forward but were limited to fruitless crosses, while Dortmund squandered a few good moments going forward with inaccurate passing.
The home team emerged as deserved winners because the 96ers didn't create any real danger for the entire 90 minutes, but Dortmund's performance wasn't one to remember.
The visitors have now lost seven straight and are looking at an uphill battle to stay in the league. They're sitting in last place, already seven points adrift before the teams just above the drop zone have even played their games on the matchday.
The Black and Yellows, on the other hand, will need to play much better on Thursday against FC Porto in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League round of 32.
Here, B/R picks the winners and losers from Dortmund's win.
Winner: Neven Subotic
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Opportunities in the Bundesliga have been few and far between this season for Subotic. The Serbian started only his third game of the season in central defence and admitted to "feeling butterflies" after the game, per Dortmund-based writer Stefan Buczko on Twitter.
One shouldn't overstate things, considering Dortmund played last-placed Hannover—who missed their usual striking duo of Adam Szalai and Hugo Almeida, to boot—but Subotic's performance should earn him more opportunities in the coming weeks.
Jurgen Koers of local paper Ruhr Nachrichten (link in German) graded him as Dortmund's best player on the day, and it's hard to disagree.
The 27-year-old put out fires before they became dangerous, intercepting many passes calmly, while also distributing the ball well after winning it. Per WhoScored.com, he made three interceptions, had five clearances and completed 95.5 per cent of his 134 passes in the game.
Loser: Thomas Schaaf
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Manager Thomas Schaaf's inclusion on this list isn't as much an indictment of his team's performance against Dortmund, which was alright, but is due to the fact that he's lost all four games in charge of the 96ers since taking over in the winter break.
The veteran coach called the game a step in the right direction in his press conference afterwards, per Ruhr Nachrichten on Twitter (link in German), and he's not necessarily wrong, considering Hannover were the first team to hold Dortmund to only one goal at home since April 2015. But in the situation the team from Lower Saxony are in, results are far more important than performances.
He hinted at that himself after the game, per Ruhr Nachrichten on Twitter (link in German), saying that his side could've achieved more in the match, which leaves a good performance but a bad result.
Winner: Henrikh Mkhitaryan
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It was certainly not one of Mkhitaryan's best performances this year. To the contrary, it was arguably one of his worst.
Still, he found ways to influence the game, setting up team-mates in dangerous situations—he made three key passes, per WhoScored.com—and, of course, scoring the winner himself with a thunderous strike from range.
After the game, the Armenian captured the one takeaway of a pretty poor performance from his team on the day in a tweet: "Mission accomplished! Heimsieg [Home win]!"
Loser: Shinji Kagawa
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Kagawa returned to the starting lineup after not even being called up to the 18-man squad for the game at Hertha BSC the week before and only coming on as a late substitute midweek against Stuttgart in the cup.
Asked about the Japanese before the game, head coach Thomas Tuchel told German broadcaster Sky that he and his staff are particularly tough on their No. 23 because they know what he's capable of.
The 26-year-old didn't make the most of his opportunity against Hannover, however.
Arguably, he was the worst BVB player in the game. Per WhoScored.com, he didn't take a single shot or make a key pass, while being dispossessed three times.
He somewhat inexplicably played the full 90 minutes but shouldn't expect the same in the coming games.
Winner: Ron-Robert Zieler
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Easily Hannover's best man on the pitch, goalkeeper Zieler would've been the hero had his team won a point in Westfalenstadion.
His reaction save against Reus in the ninth minute was nothing short of sensational, and he saved everything else he could. Granted, that wasn't all that much, as Dortmund didn't create too many clear-cut goalscoring opportunities, but it still showed Zieler's class.
The 2014 FIFA World Cup winner is without a doubt one of, if not the most, underrated 'keeper in German football, and performances like the one against Dortmund are the reason why he won't have a problem finding a new team if and when Hannover are relegated.
Lars Pollmann is a Featured Columnist writing on Borussia Dortmund. He also writes for YellowWallPod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
