#B04BVB review: Milestones and penalty discussions

summary: no points despite leading three times

The Werkself are and remain really early starters. Florian Wirtz opened the scoring against Dortmund on nine minutes. It was the first of a total of three goals to put Bayer 04 ahead in this match with the others scored by Patrik Schick (45+1') and Moussa Diaby (55'). Borussia Dortmund levelled three times through Haaland (37’), Brandt (49) and Guerreiro (71'). The decider was netted by Haaland after a debatable penalty decision (77'). The full match report is HERE.

reaction: "A game nobody deserved to lose"

"As captain, I can't criticise my team, it was a great match at a really high Bundesliga level," said keeper Lukas Hradecky in assessing the narrow defeat. "It wasn't enough today against a top team but it makes me proud when we produce this quality on the pitch. We've lost now but with a performance like that we will pick up points." Overall, it was "a match nobody deserved to lose" – also because the penalty decision for the winner was "cheek" in his opinion.

Kerem Demirbay also highlighted the debatable decision as a key incident. "Little things decide games and today it was the penalty decision by the referee," said the midfield dynamo. "The game could have gone any number of ways." Head coach Gerardo Seoane singled out the unfortunate course of the game. "You can't keep BVB out all the time but it's very annoying when we take the lead three times and end up with no points." He added, "in terms of vigilance and intensity we didn't produce our best game," but it was nevertheless "a good performance."

Personnel: three milestones and a debut

Lukas Hradecky celebrated a somewhat thankless milestone. The Werkself captain played his 200th Bundesliga match and is thereby the third player in the current Werkself squad to achieve that number after Julian Baumgartlinger and Karim Bellarabi. It's a pity our keeper conceded four goals in this special match – but he was helpless with all four. Lucas Alario came on late on to make his 100th Bundesliga appearance and the Argentinian missed the only real chance of levelling at 4-4. The achievement for Florian Wirtz was a little more successful. At the age of just 18, the midfielder made his 50th first team appearance for Bayer 04 and he rounded off a really impressive first half performance with a goal and an assist. With his eighth Bundesliga goal, he became the youngest player in the history of the Bundesliga to achieve that record.

For new signing Robert Andrich it was his first start for the Werkself. "Apart from the result, it was a really good debut for me," said the midfielder after the final whistle and spoke about a "brutally intensive match." Andrich experienced that himself in the middle of the second half when Dortmund's Meunier caught him on the knee with his studs. "It hurts now but I hope it doesn't seize up," explained Andrich. He was able to complete his first full 90 minutes for Bayer 04.

Stats: model early starters

The hunger for goals from this team in the opening stages of games is almost unbelievable. The opener from Florian Wirtz was the sixth Werkself goal in the opening 15 minutes – and that is in just four Bundesliga games The best return in the league. In relation to Saturday's game, BVB are slightly ahead in most of the statistics with somewhat more shots on goal (14:11), more possession (58%) and a slightly higher number of challenges (51%).

what the papers say: "first class advert for the game"

"Thriller without a happy ending" was the headline of the match report in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. The clash between the Werkself and BVB was "an incredible football thriller, a first class advert for the game and the league" and the defeat for Bayer 04 was "a setback but not a tragedy." The Rheinische Post also witnessed a "thrilling match full of highlights" and "an exciting clash in the West that was full of tempo, dynamism and technique from the start," and the EXPRESS reports "a terrific top match on equal terms." A recurrent theme in the reporting is the penalty decision for the winner at 4-3. The BILD calls it "controversial", and the kicker "debatable" in its online edition.

outlook: curtain raiser for european stage

The BayArena is again the venue for a Werkself match this Thursday, 16 September (kick-off: 18.45 CEST). In the first match in the Europa League group stage, Bayer 04 entertain the Hungarian champions Ferencváros. The team under the former Bundesliga coach Peter Stöger beat local rivals Honved 1-0 in the Hungarian league on Saturday despite being a man down for much of the game. That is followed by a tricky away match in the Bundesliga: Seoane's team play VfB Stuttgart on Sunday, 19 September (kick-off: 15.30 CEST).