Gotze gives Dortmund late win in opener
Reuters - Friday 24 August 2012, 22:30
Mario Gotze scored an
81st-minute winner after coming on as a late substitute to give
champions Borussia Dortmund a 2-1 home victory over Werder
Bremen as the 50th Bundesliga season kicked off on Friday.
Werder looked on course to claim a point when Czech defender
Theodor Gebre Selassie netted on his Bundesliga debut in the
75th minute.
Six minutes later Robert Lewandowski laid the ball off and
Gotze placed a low shot past goalkeeper Sebastian Mielitz to get
Dortmund, champions for the last two seasons, off to a winning
start.
Marco Reus opened the scoring for Dortmund 11 minutes into
his first league appearance following his move from Borussia
Monchengladbach.
"We did a lot of things right and the things we didn't do
right we can improve on," said Dortmund's flamboyant coach
Jurgen Klopp, wearing his characteristic three days' growth of
stubble on his chin.
"We haven't had a competitive game for 14 weeks so the
understanding is not the same."
According to media reports Reus cost a fee of 17 million
euros and Dortmund are hoping he will make up
for the absence of Shinji Kagawa in midfield after the Japanese
player was sold to Manchester United in the close season.
The 23-year-old made a dream start, rolling the ball into
the far corner of the net after Jakub Blaszczykowski's pass was
missed by Aleks Ignjovski and fell at his feet.
BIG CROWD
Backed as usual by a crowd of 80,000-plus, including the
intimidating standing-only Suedtribune, Dortmund initially
threatened to swamp Werder.
The visitors came back strongly though as volatile Austrian
Marko Arnautovic hit the foot of the post and Eljera Elia forced
a good save from Roman Weidenfeller before half-time.
Arnautovic, desperate to prove he has turned the corner
after a flurry of disciplinary problems restricted his
appearances for club and country last season, was Werder's most
dangerous player and set up the equaliser.
The ball was fed to him on the edge of the area and he
floated over a cross which Gebre Selassie, signed after his
sparkling performances at Euro 2012, met with a looping header
into the far corner.
Polish pair Blaszczykowski and Lewandowski then combined to
tee up Gotze and the 20-year-old placed his shot into the
bottom left-hand corner three minutes after being brought on.