The Borussia Dortmund U17s have crowned their successful second half-season – 11 wins, one draw and 52-7 goals – with a sensational 6-0 victory away to Borussia Mönchengladbach and thus secured qualification for the final round of the German Championship.

"That was one of our best performances of the season, a straight A," beamed coach Marco Lehmann after the triumph on the Fohlenplatz at Borussia-Park. Thierry Fidjeu-Tazemeta, Ousmane Diallo, Diego Ngambia, Taycan Etcibasi, Fritz Fleck and Luca Reggiani scored the goals for the Dortmund lads, who played like a team possessed.

As the runner-up in the B-Junior Bundesliga West, coach Marco Lehmann's team would go up against Rasenballsport Leipzig in the semi-finals on Wednesday 1 May (first leg in Dortmund) and Saturday 4 May. The Dortmund youngsters could still even become West German champions. That would happen if they won the derby against FC Schalke 04 in the final Bundesliga game on Saturday (13:00 CEST) and the still unbeaten league leaders Bayer Leverkusen dropped points at RW Essen. In this case, Eintracht Frankfurt (or Bayern Munich, who are one point behind and second in the Bundesliga Süd/Südwest) would be the opponent in the Championship final round.

It will be the first time since 2019 that both the U19s and U17s at Borussia Dortmund have competed for the German Championship. "If possible, we want to top off what has been such a successful season so far," declared Lars Ricken, the Director of the Youth Performance Centre.

Thierry Fidjeu-Tazemeta opens floodgates

In his first year as the head coach of the U17s, Marco Lehmann has succeeded in developing the talented youngsters individually and forming them into a top team that has overcome all the odds and personnel setbacks. They again produced an outstanding performance in Mönchengladbach. The Foals, who had only lost a game to Leverkusen in the second half of the season, fell behind with six minutes on the clock, with Ousmane Diallo making it 2-0 shortly before the half-time whistle.

"Both goals came from possession turnovers in midfield," said a delighted Lehmann of the excellent collective defensive performance. But BVB also shone on the ball. "It was fun to watch the team. We'll now go into the German Championship matches with a good feeling," reflected Lehmann. Diego Ngambi netted spectacularly to make it 3-0 (56), before Fritz Fleck skilfully slotted a free-kick into the back of the net from 25 metres out (72), substitute and former Schalke player Taycan Etcibasi scored his first-ever goal for Borussia Dortmund (75) and Luca Reggiani rounded off the scoring for BVB in the 90th minute.

U17s: Herdes – Cena (Mahjoubi, 76), Benkara (Riedl, 76), Reggiani, Feddersen – Kaba (Wörsdörfer, 69), Degener – Tazemeta (Etcibasi, 69), Fleck, Diallo – Ngambia (Hoy, 69)
(wiwi)