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SC Freiburg 2, Borussia Dortmund 4

It was far from straightforward, but Borussia Dortmund have an away win at Freiburg thanks to the intervention of a couple of senior professionals.

Mats Hummels was free at the far post and met Julian Brandt’s corner with a clean header to put Borussia Dortmund 1-0 up after 11 minutes. It was the 15th consecutive season that the veteran centre-back has scored a goal. Hummels is not the best centre-back in the Bundesliga anymore, but his mentality is not in question and his influence on this game played a significant contribution to Dortmund’s win, as well as the two goals that he scored.

For me, Hummels is still one of the best long passers of the game and while his lack of pace and positional sense is an issue, his experience and determination lifted the team, enabling them to come from behind to win the match 4-2, albeit against 10 men, and settle some nerves on the dressing room and hopefully among the fans.

Freiburg were missing Christian Günter in the starting lineup which was certainly a hindrance. However, Christian Streich’s team worked hard to bounce back from the early goal and took the lead with two goals in first-half stoppage time from Lucas Höler and Nicolas Höfler. Substitute Vincenzo Grifo’s cross was flicked on by Höler and into the net. It should be said that Höler was given the space for his header by Hummels who took a step backward instead of forward.

Mats giveth and Mats taketh away. It was a similar scenario for Freiburg’s second: a set piece from Grifo into the box and off the head of an unmarked Höfler.

Dortmund’s equaliser came just before the hour mark. Edin Terzic made a couple, of substitutions: Adeyemi for Nmecha and Füllkrug for Haller. The latter was involved only seconds later, combining with Donyell Malen with a lovely return flick, on the counterattack. Malen’s finish was cool and instinctive which is when he is at his best. The Dutch forward gets a bit of stick from sections of the online fan community, but he has been the player to score the big goals so far this season.

The match turned on the 82nd minute when one of the Freiburg goal scorers, Nicolas Höfler, was sent off for two rapid-fire yellow cards. With the extra man, Dortmund pressed home their advantage. They took the lead in the 88th minute. Hummels again scored, from another set piece while Freiburg were temporarily down to 9 men. The defender stabbed the ball home at close range after a brief melee. It’s fair to say that Freiburg’s ‘keeper Noah Atubolu won’t be happy that he didn’t take command of that situation.

Atubolu was not at his best for the fourth goal either, in the final minutes of the match. Substitute Marius Wolf, under no pressure, on the right flank passed the ball through to another substitute, Marco Reus who took his time and placed his shot well within saving range for the ‘keeper who could only deflect the ball into the net.

It was not exactly a textbook win and Borussia benefited from Höfler’s multiple brain-fart and poor goalkeeping. After the game Terzic accepted that Dortmund are still a work in progress: “We wanted to avoid allowing many crosses near the penalty area, but we didn't succeed. We switched to a three-man defense from the 60th minute. We then played with Niclas Füllkrug and Donyell Malen at the front, which worked well. But we are not yet at 100 percent. But this time we made up for a deficit and won."

As the season gets going, it’s my view that Borussia are still struggling with the kind of systemic issues they always had. Poor set piece management, inability to deal with attacks from the flanks, and general lack of discipline in the midfield (Emre Can could have got two yellows against Freiburg in my opinion). However, I’m also of the view that some of the player has not recovered the trauma of the Mainz game in May. It is as well that they have senior squad members who can lift the team. We can only hope that the players recover and show us what they can do. The rest is up to the coach.

Elsewhere in the Bundesliga

It’s raining goals in Germany, and we may have a title race. Bayer Leverkusen traveled to Bayern Munich on Friday to kick off the matchday. They returned with a convincing performance and a creditable point. Harry Kane opened the scoring in the 7th minute for the champions. Alex Grimaldo equalised for the visitors with an absolute traumtor of a freekick. When Leon Goretzka scored his team’s second in the 86th minute it looked like Bayern could shut the doors and assume that everything would go to plan. However, that pesky VAR gave Leverkusen a penalty after Alphonso Davies brought down Exequiel Palacios in the box. Palacios got up and converted the spot kick in the 90th minute. The match finished 2-2 and Xabi-Alonso’s team sit atop the Bundesliga. This was not in Harry Kane’s plan.

In fact, the England captain can’t even seek solace in being the Bundesliga top-scorer. That honour belongs to Serhou Guiressy of Stuttgart who has scored 8 goals in the opening four games of the season. Much of Guiressy’s good form is down to Stuttgart’s great start to the season. Sebastian Hoeness’ team have won three games, scoring 13 goals. At the weekend they beat Mainz 3-0. In recent seasons the Swabians have either been relegation strugglers or just plain relegated. They needed a play-off against Hamburg to retain their top-flight status last season. This season they sit in fourth place. The frustrating thing about Stuttgart, in recent years, is that you felt there was a good team trying to break out. Well, it’s early days but maybe this season we’ll see that happen.

The two promoted sides had interesting games: Heidenheim won their first three points for the season after beating Werder Bremen, 4-2. Two of FCH’s goals came from on-loan Bremen player Eren Dinkci. Darmstadt went 3-1 up against ‘Gladbach but had a player sent off and had to settle for a point as their opponents fought back for a 3-3 draw.

Cologne’s uncertain start to the campaign continued with a 3-1 defeat at home to Hoffenheim.

RB Leipzig’s 3-0 win over Augsburg was standard.

Wolfsburg bounced back after their defeat last matchday with a 2-1 over Union Berlin who probably had their upcoming Champions League encounter with Real Madrid on their minds.

And speaking of the Champions League…

Up next, Paris Saint Germain

If there’s ever a time to play PSG it’s now. They were completely undone by Terem Moffi who bagged a brace and an assist for Nice as they won at the Parc de Prince at the weekend by 3-2. Killian Mbappé scored both for PSG and made the scoreline look close but it was a convincing performance by Nice. Sadly, I’m not sure Borussia have a Moffi to deploy against the PSG defence. After this match, the Parisians welcome Marseille in a rivalry that surpasses sport, so the team is juggling priorities right now.

Among the squad of the Ligue 1 champions, waiting to renew acquaintances are former players, Ousmane Dembele and Achraf Hakimi. Needless to say, the aforementioned Mbappé will represent the biggest threat, marauding down the flanks and terrorising our fullbacks. Randal Kolo Muani made his debut against Nice after his dramatic deadline-day transfer from Eintracht Frankfurt. He laid on an assist for one of M’Bappe’s goals.

It’s going to be a tough Champions League group for Dortmund. PSG and AC Milan are both top sides and while Newcastle have had a less than convincing start to the season, they are a club on the up and like any Premier League side, tough to beat. Dortmund need a big performance to make their mark on this group of death.