The Borussia Dortmund U23s lost their game in hand 2-1 against second-from-bottom Kaan-Marienborn in front of 809 fans. Taylan Duman was the sole scorer for BVB.

The pre-match scenario:

BVB occupied sixth place in the table following their 0-0 draw with RW Essen. The visitors, meanwhile, were second-from-bottom with only 22 points and a slim mathematical chance of beating the drop.

Personnel matters:

Alen Terzic only made one change to the starting XI that faced RW Essen, with Leon Burggraf replacing Sergio Gomez in the centre-forward role. The rest of the squad remained identical.

The first half:

The opening stages saw Kaan-Marienborn sit very deep in a 5-3-2 formation and wait for the chance to counter. A long ball found Ramaj in the seventh minute but he dragged his shot wide from a narrow angle. The speedy striker did better in the 20th minute, however, outpacing Marco Rente and firing home from a centre-right position to make it 1-0.

The Black & Yellows looked lacklustre in the first half, while their visitors looked compact in defence and gave away very little. BVB looked short of ideas and lacked structure in their offensive play, with a long-range effort from Julian Schwermann around the half-hour mark their most dangerous moment in the opening 45 minutes. Visiting shot-stopper Bölker was called into action for the first time on the 44-minute mark, but he was not troubled by attempts from Duman and Boyamba and so the score remained 1-0 to the visitors when the half-time whistle sounded.

The second half:

BVB made a bright start to the second period and drew level on the 50-minute mark when Denzeil Boadu beat two defenders before being fouled inside the penalty area by Jannik Schneider. The referee Alexander Schuh showed no hesitation in pointing to the spot and although Taylan Duman missed the ensuing penalty kick, he managed to get to the loose ball first and slot home the rebound to make it 1-1.

Nine minutes later, Boadu found himself in a similar situation to the one before the penalty. He rounded shot-stopper Bölker and tried to score from eight minutes out but his shot lacked power and team-mate Boyamba was narrowly offside when he helped it over the line. As a result, the goal was correctly disallowed and the score remained 1-1. The game died down in the period that followed and only came back to life when the visitors scored out of the blue on 76 minutes, with centre-back Marco Rente unluckily turning a harmless cross into his own net. Eric Oelschlägel in the BVB goal was powerless to prevent it going in.

BVB threw everything forward in the final 10 minutes and that left space for the visitors to capitalise on the counter. Mats-Lukas Scheld went clean through on Oelschlägel in the 81st minute but he missed, meaning the game still hung in the balance. Alen Terzic's third and final substitution was to bring on striker Rizzo for the final eight minutes in the hope he could produce an equaliser. But Kaan-Marienborn's clever defending helped them see out the win and pick up three important points in their relegation battle.

BVB boss Alen Terzic's reaction: 

"It was clear to us that it wouldn't be easy. It took a long time until we produced our first shot at goal. We were not able to defend well against the deep runs made by the visitors. In the second half, we performed in a slightly different manner. The goal helped us to generate more pressure in our game. We were on the verge of turning the game around. The second goal we conceded was obviously unlucky from our perspective and then it's difficult to come back. Congratulations to Kaan-Marienborn on the win!"

Outlook:

The U23s are next in action when SV Lippstadt visit the Rote Erde Stadion on Sunday (kick-off 14:00 CET).

BVB U23s: Oelschlägel – Bah-Traore, Rente, Konaté, Hanke – Schwermann, Boadu, Duman (Tekiela, 61) – Burggraf (Wanner, 46), Boyamba, Baxmann (Rizzo, 82)

Goals: 0-1 Ramaj (20), 1-1 Duman (52), 1-2 Rente (76, OG)