Nurnberg Vs. Borussia Dortmund, 2012 Bundesliga: Dortmund Survive Early Storm Before Cruising To Victory

Borussia Dortmund continued their run of fine form with an entertaining 2-0 win over Nurnberg at the EasyCredit-Stadion, but they didn't manage to make their victory totally comfortable. The first half of the match was a veritable blitz of goalscoring chances for both sides, with Nurnberg looking very much the better team in the early stages. The hosts might have gone ahead three or four times in the first fifteen minutes, with Tomas Pekhart losing a penalty apeal and then brushing the crossbar with a volley, opportunities that bracketed Shinji Kagawa clearing a goalbound Timmy Simons header off the line to keep the match scoreless.

After the inital storm, Dortmund began to settle, coming very close to scoring several times themselves. Perhaps their best chance of the first half came when Robert Lewandowski blasted straight at Rafael Schaefer when put clear through, and Schaefer made two more key saves to deny both Lewandowski against and then Kagawa before the break.

Unfortunately for Nurnberg, Schaefer's luck didn't hold. Sven Bender's halftime substitution should have been good news for the hosts, but the dynamic midfielder's replacement, Moritz Leitner, had other plans. With 48 minutes on the clock, the substitute played an inch-perfect pass to pick out Lukasz Piszczek, and the right back simply cut the ball back for Sebastian Kehl to blast home.

From then on it was all Dortmund, and Nurnberg were lucky not to fall further behind when Lewandowski was adjudged (correctly) fractionally offside when he deflected a Kehl drive into the back of the net for what looked for a second like a 2-0 lead, but the hosts' luck would only last so long, and Lucas Barrios was on hand to score his first goal of the season when Schaefer spilled an effort by Kagawa.

BvB would have another called back for offside before the game was done, but one has to imagine that they'd be pretty happy with the 2-0 scoreline anyway. The win takes them temporarily back to the top of the table, while Nurnberg's 11th loss of the season could see them fall as low as 15th by the end of the weekend.