Mario
Gotze returned to action for the first time since January as Borussia Dortmund
defeated Urawa Reds in a five-goal thriller.
Andre Schurrle scored
a late winner as Borussia Dortmund marked Mario Gotze's return to action with a
3-2 victory over Urawa Reds.
Peter Bosz's side,
beaten by fourth-tier Rot-Weiss Essen by the same scoreline in their
opening friendly, deservedly trailed to Shinzo Koroki's 24th-minute opener
in Saitama.
A quick-fire double
from half-time substitute Emre Mor – brought on along with Gotze, making
his first appearance since January – put the visitors ahead going into the
final 10 minutes.
It looked as
though Wataru Endo had secured a hard-earned draw for the
eighth-placed J.League side, but his misplaced header allowed Schurrle to
settle it at the death.
Mario
Gotze returned to action for the first time since January as Borussia Dortmund
defeated Urawa Reds in a five-goal thriller.
Andre Schurrle scored
a late winner as Borussia Dortmund marked Mario Gotze's return to action with a
3-2 victory over Urawa Reds.
Peter Bosz's side,
beaten by fourth-tier Rot-Weiss Essen by the same scoreline in their
opening friendly, deservedly trailed to Shinzo Koroki's 24th-minute opener
in Saitama.
A quick-fire double
from half-time substitute Emre Mor – brought on along with Gotze, making
his first appearance since January – put the visitors ahead going into the
final 10 minutes.
It looked as
though Wataru Endo had secured a hard-earned draw for the
eighth-placed J.League side, but his misplaced header allowed Schurrle to
settle it at the death.
The Reds were denied a penalty when Rafael Silva took a tumble in the box following a challenge from Marc Bartra, with the referee unmoved.
Bartra
came close to opening the scoring with a 14th-minute header that struck the
underside of the crossbar, while Schurrle curled narrowly off target soon
after.
Yuki
Muto hit Roman Weidenfeller's left-hand upright from a tight angle to send
a timely reminder of the Reds' threat and give the home crowd a lift.
And
the deadlock was broken in the next attack, with Koroki getting ahead
of Lukasz Piszczek to fire in from Yosuke Kashiwagi's corner.
Bartra's
busy day continued when he skewed an untidy effort wide after the ball fell
kindly for him eight yards out.
It
should have been 2-0 before the break, but Rafael Silva shot straight
at Weidenfeller with the goal at his mercy.
Bosz
made five changes at half-time, with Bartra and new signing Omer Toprak among
those to make way, while Gotze was thrown into the action after struggling with
a metabolic disorder.
Mor
was another of those to be introduced at the interval and he levelled matters
14 minutes from time with a toe-poked finish beyond Shusaku Nishikawa.
The
Turkey international was on the mark again three minutes later when he
received a cutback from Marcel Schmelzer before seeing his deflected strike hit
the back of the net.
Dortmund
were exposed from another corner when Endo nodded home, but he went from hero
to villain as his poor defensive header ran to Schurrle to provide a
decisive finish.
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.