For 80 minutes Saturday night’s Bundesliga showpiece in Dortmund threatened to finish without a goal. Then two men who had started on the bench changed everything. Jobe Bellingham drove down the right and pulled the ball back, and Maximilian Beier bent a right-footed shot from just under 20 metres into the far corner. The 1-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt puts Borussia Dortmund three points clear of Bayern Munich, at least until the champions visit Freiburg on Sunday.
It was Dortmund’s first league victory since matchday four, and Frankfurt goalkeeper Noah Atubolu made them work for it. He saved twice from Serhou Guirassy inside the opening 20 minutes, once with a low one-handed stop and once by spreading himself to block an attempted chip. The woodwork helped the visitors as well: Daniel Svensson’s deflected strike clipped the top of the bar before the break, and Guirassy headed against it from a corner early in the second half.
Adi Hütter’s side were no passengers. Jonathan Burkardt dragged a shot just past the post, Younes Ebnoutalib was twice left unmarked in the box without converting, and Gregor Kobel had to tip a dipping effort from Farès Chaïbi over the crossbar seconds after the restart. On balance Frankfurt carried the greater threat in the first half.
The difference came from the Dortmund dugout. Niko Kovač, who coached Frankfurt to the German Cup in 2018, made a triple change midway through the second half that brought on Beier, then added Bellingham. Frankfurt threw on Mario Götze for a late push but could not find an equaliser in front of a sell-out crowd.
Elsewhere on Saturday, RB Leipzig thrashed Elversberg 4-0, Niclas Füllkrug converted two penalties as Werder Bremen won 3-2 at Mainz, and Paderborn edged Hamburg 1-0 with a late goal. Dortmund’s next assignment is the biggest of all: Der Klassiker away at Bayern next weekend.
