BVB women beat Leverkusen's U23 4-0

Compared to the cup match nine days previous, Markus Högner made two changes to his team: Celina Baum (bench) and Ann-Sophie Vogel (tendonitis) were replaced in the starting 11 by Jasmin Jabbes and birthday girl Mia Böger. Both teams started the match at a high pace, resulting in a well-balanced first 15 minutes. Borussia gradually took control of the game, however, and created the first real scoring opportunity in the 17th minute: after a pass from Sara Ito, Ronja Leubner found herself one-on-one with goalkeeper Louisa Remien – the shot, however, ended up in the arms of the Leverkusen goalie.

As a result, BVB increased the pressure, but any clear-cut chances. This changed in the 29th minute when Annika Enderle, after a superb pass from Jenske Steenwijk, controlled the ball in the penalty area and placed it in the far right corner to give her team a 1-0 lead. In the final third of the first half, the Black & Yellows continued to win challenges, but many of their attacking moves were ruled offside. This was not the case, however, in the 38th minute: after winning the ball in midfield and a fine pass to Annika Enderle, the striker scored her second goal of the match, giving her team a well-deserved 2-0 lead at halftime.

The second half started without any changes in BVB's squad and a bit more courageous home side. Leverkusen's top striker Alisa Sinani failed to pull one back, firing the ball over the Dortmund goal (54). It was Borussia shortly thereafter, that scored the next goal: via Jabbes and Günnewig, the ball reached Jenske Steenwijk, who scored the reassuring 3-0 (60). As the opposing team coached by Mirko Casper grew slowly tired, Ronja Leubner (62) and Frederike Kempe (72) created two more decent chances for BVB.

For the final minutes, Högner brought Nova Wicke, Emilia Pauls, Yasu Wöhrn and Nora Willeke into the game. They all seamlessly integrated into the game. It was Willeke, the substitute, who found Steenwijk in the 87th minute, who in her turn, successfully found striker Celina Baum who scored the 4-0. So with a consistenly convincing performance, and once again with a clean sheet, the BVB women kicked-off the second half of the Regionalliga West season.

BVB's last game of the year will be at home in Rote Erde stadium against the U21 of 1. FC Köln. The game against the current leaders of the league will take place on Saturday 6 December with a 11:00 CET kick-off. Tickets are available from the online BVB ticket shop (standing: €3.00, seating: €5.00); there will be no ticket office on the day of the match. As usual, Pluto TV will broadcast the match live and free of charge. Robert Targan

BVB women: Van der Laan – Böger, Steenwijk, Jabbes (76, Wicke), Günnewig, Schumacher (76, Pauls), Reimann (83, Wöhrn), Ito, Leubner (65, Baum), Enderle (83, Willeke), Kempe