U23s go down 3-1 to league leaders Elversberg | OneFootball

The Borussia Dortmund U23s had a lot of good moments in Elversberg but ultimately still succumbed to defeat against the in-form league leaders. Manuel Feil (12), Kevin Koffi (20) and Jannik Rochelt (69) scored the goals for the home team. Ole Pohlmann had earlier narrowed the deficit for the Black & Yellows (32). Having previously gone six games unbeaten, BVB sit in 12th place in the table with 18 points at the close of Matchday 15.

Personnel matters: Coach Christian Preusser made four changes for the match in Elversberg. Bjarne Pudel slotted in for Kolbeinn Finnsson in defence, while Falko Michel replaced the suspended Can Özkan and the duo of Justin Njinmah and Ted Tattermusch started up front in place of Aday Ercan and Timo Bornemann. The result was a more offensive line-up – the centre of midfield was occupied by Ole Pohlmann and Michel, who are attack-minded and courageous in equal measure.

The scenario: This clash in the Saarland was a meeting of the two most in-form teams in the 3. Liga. Elversberg, who were promoted to Germany's third tier in the summer, went into the game as league leaders and with the best attack in the league (35 goals). Borussia were unbeaten in six matches, having picked up 14 points in the process and kept clean sheets in their previous four games.

The match & analysis: It was an even encounter in the opening 10 minutes, with both teams pressing high, attempting to disrupt their opponent early and turning on the tempo in attack. But neither really created clear-cut openings. But that changed starting in the 12th minute, when Elversberg took the lead via Manuel Feil. The league leaders launched the move for the goal down the right flank and neither captain Franz Pfanne nor keeper Marcel Lotka could ultimately block Feil's shot, which made it 1-0.

The first major opportunity to equalise came only four minutes later, though BVB forward Moritz Broschinski failed to beat goalkeeper Nicolas Kristof following some lovely link-up play involving Pohlmann and Tattermusch (16). SVE subsequently upped the tempo. Kevin Koffi made it 2-0 in the 21st minute. Robin Fellhauer then volleyed wide (23), before Manuel Feil and Jannik Rochelt were denied by Lotka's excellent reactions (24, 26). The Black & Yellows were in need of a breather.

A 3-0 lead did not seem to be that far away, but Bjarne Pudel spotted the run of Pohlmann and lofted the ball over to the inside left channel. Dortmund's midfielder got the better of two opposing players and fired a low shot into the bottom right corner of the net to make it 2-1 (32). It was an immensely important goal for the U23s, who were able to bring the game back onto a more equal footing up until the break. There were to be no more major chances in the minutes that followed.

At the break, Preusser brought on U19 champion Göktan Gürpüz in place of Ted Tattermusch – and the newcomer was the protagonist in the first major incident of the second half. The ball made its way via Njinmah to Gürpüz, who struck the woodwork from a centre-right position (58). Elversberg's Semih Sahin was also denied by the frame of the goal (59), but Jannik Rochelt found the net in the 69th minute, scoring the third goal for SVE after BVB defender Pudel had made a mistake.

That setback marked the start of the second complicated phase for the brave Black & Yellows. Elversberg's attacking department created several top opportunities, but Lotka kept out Israel Suero Fernandez (71), Sahin (74), Marcel Correia (75) and Thore Jacobsen (76) with some outstanding saves and the game ended with SV Elversberg the 3-1 victors.

Christian Preusser: "Elversberg played a great game. The better team won. There were many, many moments for us to get through. They had many goalscoring chances. However, we did have one or two moments – if I think back to the good chance Broschinski had to make it 1-1 and the very good chance for Gürpüz to make it 2-2. It of course frustrates us that we lost. But this will help us move forward too. The tempo was unbelievable; we had to get through an unbelievable amount of counter-attacks and had two or three losses of possession where we were untidy with the first touch. We need to learn from this. We will see how we have developed in the return fixture."

BVB U23s: Lotka – Suver, Pfanne, Pudel (Dams, 79) – Pasalic (Aning, 85), Pohlmann, Michel (Ercan, 79), Bueno (Semic, 73) – Broschinski, Tattermusch (Gürpüz, 46), Njinmah

Goals: 1-0 Feil (12), 2-0 Koffi (21), 2-1 Pohlmann (32), 3-1 Rochelt (69)