Dortmund young guns down Gladbach
BERLIN: Erling Braut Haaland scored twice and 17-year-old Giovanni Reyna shone as youthful Borussia Dortmund swept aside fellow Champions League side Borussia Moenchengladbach 3-0 on Saturday on the opening weekend of the Bundesliga season.
After holders Bayern Munich had kicked off the 2020/21 campaign on Friday with a record 8-0 thrashing of Schalke, Dortmund’s youngsters also dazzled at home to Gladbach.
“It was a really good start to the season. We have a lot of young guys, it’s fun to play with guys near my age,” said USA Under-17 international Reyna.
“This is an exciting group and we have to keep working.”
Haaland converted a second-half penalty, then again showcased his clinical eye for goal by finishing a superb counter as Dortmund attacked from their own goal.
Coach Lucien Favre banked on youth by starting two 17-year-olds in Reyna and England Under-21 midfielder Jude Bellingham, who made his league debut, with Sancho and Haaland, both 20, leading Dortmund’s attack.
Reyna, making just his third league start, paid back the faith by scoring the opening goal and winning the penalty Haaland converted.
Reyna drilled home Bellingham’s superb pass from a tight ankle on 34 minutes, then had his ankle clipped after a darting run into the area to win the penalty for Haaland.
Sancho tried to convince Haaland to let him take the spot-kick, but “I was confident whoever took it, would score, which is the most important thing” said Reyna.
Haaland then stole the show with a stunning end-to-end sprint to support
Sancho’s break before crashing home Dortmund’s third goal on 78 minutes.
The towering Norwegian, the first player in Bundesliga history to score a hat-trick from the bench, now has 18 goals in 20 games for Dortmund since his arrival in January.
For the first time since March, some German league clubs were able to welcome back limited numbers of fans, depending on permission from local health authorities.
The biggest crowd of the day was in Dortmund, as 9,300 cheered the impressive home win.
“It’s amazing to have fans back, they support us so much,” added Reyna.
Earlier, Hertha Berlin’s new-signing Jhon Cordoba scored on his debut in a 4-1 away romp in front of 8,500 fans at Werder Bremen.
In the capital, playmaker Michael Gregoritsch and winger Andre Hahn scored late goals as Augsburg beat hosts Union Berlin 3-1 in front of 4,600 fans.
Newly-promoted Arminia Bielefeld earned a point with a 1-1 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt on their return to the top flight in front of 6,500.
Stuttgart, who also came up, gave Freiburg a scare with late goals by Sasa Kalajdzic and Silas Wamangituka as they fought back in a 3-2 defeat in front of 8,000.