Karim Adeyemi crowned a perfect week for him with another brace and shot Borussia Dortmund to the top of the Bundesliga table, at least for one night. Thanks in particular to two goals and an assist from the 22-year-old, BVB demystified the previous league leader 1. FC Heidenheim with a 4:2 (3:1) win and moved past the Swabians, who had previously been unbeaten in five competitive matches this season. Donyell Malen (12th minute), Adeyemi (17th/41st) and Emre Can (90th+3/handball penalty) scored the first FCH goals conceded this Bundesliga season.
The goals from Marvin Pieringer (39th) and Maximilian Breunig from a penalty (74th) were not enough for the guests, who only really put BVB under pressure in the final phase. The Champions League finalists from the Ruhr region warmed up for their first Champions League appearance this season on Wednesday at FC Bruges with the win. This is especially true for Adeyemi, who had already scored five goals in the two U21 international matches in the past few days and overshadowed the season debut of 18 million euro signing Serhou Guirassy on Friday.
The former Stuttgart player was in the starting eleven straight away after recovering from knee problems and shone in Dortmund’s third goal when he cleverly passed the ball through to Adeyemi, who was lurking behind him. In view of Dortmund’s offensive spectacle, coach Nuri Sahin’s risky tactic paid off. As his Heidenheim colleague Frank Schmidt expected, Dortmund played extremely high and left only central defenders Niklas Süle and Waldemar Anton as cover in the absence of the yellow-red suspended Nico Schlotterbeck.
The hosts applied pressure early on and took the lead through Malen. Five minutes later, Julian Brandt, who was playing as BVB captain for the first time, passed to Adeyemi, who scored with the confidence of previous U21 games. Even after the two-goal lead, BVB coach Sahin stuck with the extremely high full-backs Julian Ryerson and Ramy Bensebaini. The hosts now took a more leisurely approach up front or were too imprecise, Heidenheim had more periods of possession and became dangerous after high balls, Pieringer headed in a great cross from Omar Traoré – Dortmund’s first goal of the season. But just two minutes after the lead, Adeyemi again restored the old lead.
Heidenheim coach Schmidt brought on Sirlord Conteh after the break, but three further substitutions had little effect after almost 70 minutes. That was until substitute Breunig scored from the penalty spot after a Süle foul. Shortly before the end, however, BVB made it clear thanks to a converted penalty from substitute Can.
