U23 suffer heavy defeat to Essen

On Matchday 30 in the 3. Liga, Borussia Dortmund's U23 suffered a 4-0 defeat in the local derby against Rot-Weiss Essen. Shortly before half-time, BVB were caught out and went into the dressing room 1-0 down. In the second half, three more goals followed for the hosts. After the third consecutive defeat, coach Uwe Zimmermann's team now lie in eighth place in the table.

The scenario: Coach Jan Zimmermann's team had recently fallen to two consecutive defeats against Duisburg and Arminia Bielefeld, while Rot-Weiss Essen had picked up just two points from their last four games. Borussia had suffered only three away defeats so far this season - no team have lost fewer games on the road.

Personnel matters: Not only did Ole Pohlmann, who had been sorely missed, return, but Samuel Bamba and Guille Bueno had also been able to complete full training sessions in recent days and were available. And Paul Besong also returned to the matchday squad for the first time in months. Prince Aning moved into the back four in place of the injured Lion Semic. In goal, Silas Ostrzinski deputised for Marcel Lotka, who had been called up to the first team squad. In addition, young striker Paris Brunner played his first match for the U23s, and his debut came in Essen of all places. The Dortmund native had played at RWE in the U12s and U13s, and had been a ball boy in the last BVB win on the Hafenstraße in 2017.

The match: 17,137 spectators saw a committed BVB performance from the outset, with the Black & Yellows initially focusing on retaining possession and did not let the hosts get much going. However, it was RWE who had the first opportunity in the fifth minute, but Silas Ostrzinski showed great reflexes to tip Moussa Doumbouya's shot around the post for a corner.

Both teams were active and played an expansive brand of football. As the game wore on, the hosts increasingly took the initiative and created chances for Vinco Sapina and Cedric Harenbrock. After a good half hour, the best chance fell to BVB: a long ball had reached Paris Brunner and surprised the entire RWE defence, but the ball got away from the young striker as he went into a duel with goalkeeper Jakob Golz and went agonisingly wide of the goal and out for a goal kick.

With 45 minutes on the clock, Marvin Obuz's cross reached RWE centre-forward Moussa Doumbouya, who headed the ball into the BVB net to give his side the lead on the stroke of half-time.

After 58 minutes, Franz Pfanne committed a foul in his own penalty area, and Moussa Doumbouya made no mistake to double the Essen lead to 2-0 in the 57th minute. With the two-goal cushion, the hosts dropped a little deeper, while BVB, for their part, became a little more attacking and enjoyed more possession. The Black & Yellows were trying hard, but without carving out any real chances.

The hosts repeatedly countered well and increased their lead to three goals on 84 minutes thanks the pacey Isaiah Young. Obuz had pulled the ball back to his teammate from the corner of 18-yard box, so all Young had to do was slot the ball into the net. With the last action of the match, Sascha Voelcke added a fourth. The substitute found the top-left corner from ten metres out to make it 4-0 to Essen.

U23s: Ostrzinski - Aidonis, Pfanne, Papadopoulos, Aning (Bueno, 63) - Roggow - Hettwer (Besong, 63), Eberwein, Pohlmann (Michel, 72), Brunner (Bamba, 72) - Elongo-Yombo

Goals: 1-0 Doumbouya (45), 2-0 Doumbouya (57), 3-0 Young (84), 4-0 Voelcke (90+2)