Julian Brandt warms in-form Borussia Dortmund up for Newcastle trip
Julian Brandt marked his 300th Bundesliga appearance with a goal that keeps Borussia Dortmund unbeaten after eight games.
Brandt haunted hometown club Werder Bremen with a winner midway through the second half, meaning he's now scored or assisted in seven straight Bundesliga fixtures.
In doing so, the 27-year-old became the third youngest player to reach a triple century of outings after Eike Immel and Karl-Heinz Körbel, but even if he missed out on that record by 55 days, Dortmund's form player – with three goals and four assists for the league campaign – had plenty to celebrate upon reaching a rare landmark.
“For it to come against them, to make so many people happy in the stands and to score myself rounded it all off nicely,” Brandt said. “I’m very happy – and tired” continued Dortmund’s matchwinner to DAZN. “I can’t wait to get to bed!”
Watch: Dortmund 1-0 Bremen - highlights
Brandt will be needing his beauty sleep to shine again when Dortmund head to Newcastle on Wednesday. There, they will need a similar result to get their UEFA Champions League Group F campaign up and running against the current group leaders, who crushed Paris Saint-Germain 4-1 last time out
But the Westphalians are certainly no pushovers.
Their fifth Bundesliga win in a row was their 20th game unbeaten at home – where they have scored at least once in their past 56 matches – while Edin Terzić’s men currently boast the longest unbeaten record in Germany’s top flight. Indeed, you must go all the way back to April 1 for their last defeat, when Bayern Munich kept the title race exciting with a 4-2 win.
Since then, they have picked up at least a point in 16 straight games, though having created an xG of 2.71 against Bremen, and only won 1-0, it is not lost on Terzić where his team still need to improve.
“We’re not taking our chances,” he said. “When we scored, that was our seventh big chance and we should have taken the lead earlier, and we had chances to score more. That made it tight, but it was still a fully deserved win.”
Watch: Emre Can on Brandt's Bremen winner
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With last season’s Bundesliga top scorer Niclas Füllkrug in the ranks, it will only be a matter of time before the goals do start to arrive with greater regularity.
“My job was more to link up the play,” said Füllkrug, who failed to score against his former club and remains stuck on two goals from his first eight games in a Dortmund shirt.
“I was getting involved a lot and had to be playable," he continued. "Jule then scored a great goal, with excellent timing and a perfect finish.”
Dortmund will hope that perfect finish will be a perfect start to an important week, as they will go from the Tyne to the Main next weekend to face Eintracht Frankfurt, and hope to keep up their challenge on all fronts.
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