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Dortmund (dpa) - Thanks to Julian Brandt and top talent Youssoufa Moukoko, Borussia Dortmund can continue to hope for a happy ending in the fight for Champions League qualification.
The lucky goal by national player Brandt in the 54th minute, caused by a major goalkeeping mistake, paved the way for the hard-fought 2-0 (0-0) success over Hertha BSC.
In stoppage time, Moukoko made the final score on Saturday (90 + 1).
With that, the team of coach Edin Terzic moved up to fifth place in the Bundesliga for at least one day.
Four days after the successful show of strength in the second round of the European premier class against Sevilla FC, however, a lot of work was necessary to defeat the Berliners.
On the other hand, the guests in the empty Signal Iduna Park had to accept another setback.
As with the long-awaited victory over Augsburg a week earlier, they looked significantly better in form, but they didn't get any results.
After the 14th season defeat, they are level on points with the table-16.
FSV Mainz 05 on rank 15. In addition, Vladimir Darida saw the red card in the 80th minute after a serious foul on BVB captain Marco Reus.
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Despite the recent rush of appointments with games in the Bundesliga, Champions League and the DFB-Pokal, BVB coach Terzic refrained from an extensive rotation and only ordered one new member, Julian Brandt, into the starting line-up.
That only made for a little more creativity in the build-up game.
So BVB developed clear advantages in possession of the ball right from the start, but there were no clear chances to score.
Only with a direct decrease from Reus (12th) after a cross from Mateu Morey, Borussia came dangerously close to the opposing goal.
Six minutes later, Reus hit the bar with a free kick from 20 meters.
Surviving this initial phase without conceding a goal encouraged the Berliners to take more offensive actions after a defensive start.
Krzysztof Piatek was close to the lead in the 24th minute.
In addition, there were now good chances of counterattacking, which, however, were not played consistently to the end.
But the biggest chance in the overall bland first half was missed by Dortmund's Jew Bellingham (33.), who failed after a clever pass from Thorgan Hazard with a shot from ten meters at Hertha goalkeeper Rune Jarstein, who reacted well.
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Even after the restart, BVB gained clear field advantages, but kept getting stuck in the well-organized Hertha defense.
There was also little to see from striker Haaland, who had scored four times in the first leg.
Only a capital mistake by the then strong Jarstein gave the lead: The Berlin goalkeeper let a not particularly placed long-range shot from Brandt pass from over 20 meters.
But even this leadership, which came about under fortunate circumstances, did not bring back any ease for BVB.
Until the final whistle it was a tough struggle with the Berliners, who could not turn the game around - and even had to accept the second goal in stoppage time.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210313-99-810714 / 2
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BVB squad
Hertha squad