Freiburg put the brakes on Borussia Dortmund’s early-season optimism by holding on for a 2-1 win in the Bundesliga on Saturday, a demoralizing blow for a team with ambitions of challenging for the title.
Goals in each half from Vincenzo Grifo and Hungary midfielder Roland Sallai gave host Freiburg its first win and dealt new Dortmund coach Marco Rose his first league defeat after the 5-2 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in the opening round last weekend. Dortmund lost in the German Super Cup to Bayern Munich on Tuesday.
Dutch forward Donyell Malen made his first start for Dortmund, but it was a bad beginning overall for the visitors in Freiburg.
Felix Passlack’s foul on Nicolas Höfler gave Grifo all the opportunity he needed to open the scoring with a brilliant free kick in off the post in the sixth minute.
Jude Bellingham missed a good chance to equalize, then later hit the post before Jeong Woo-yeong went close for Freiburg.
Sallai made it 2-0 early in the second half, when Bellingham lost the ball to Höfler, who sent it on to Jeong. Lucas Höler laid Jeong’s cross off for Sallai to score.
Passlack forced an own-goal from Yannik Keitel in the 59th, and Dortmund kept pushing for more.
Gio Reyna sent Erling Haaland on his way but the Norwegian fired over in the 68th, and Dortmund’s late pressure failed to yield an equalizer.
Wolfsburg substitute Lukas Nmecha scored late for a 2-1 win at Hertha Berlin and Eintracht Frankfurt drew with Augsburg 0-0.
Also, promoted Greuther Fürth drew with Arminia Bielefeld 1-1, and Bochum earned its first win in the top flight after an 11-year absence with a 2-0 victory at home over Mainz.
Bayer Leverkusen hosted Borussia Mönchengladbach later Saturday.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsBit.us is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
