— Second-placed Borussia Dortmund celebrated its 1,000th Bundesliga home match in style, sweeping aside a rotated Freiburg side to secure qualification for next season's Champions League
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BERLIN — Second-placed Borussia Dortmund celebrated its 1,000th Bundesliga home match in style, sweeping aside a rotated Freiburg side to secure qualification for next season's Champions League.
Needing a response after consecutive league defeats to Bayer Leverkusen and TSG Hoffenheim, Niko Kovac's team settled the contest early. Maximilian Beier opened the scoring in the eighth minute, running onto Ramy Bensebaini's long pass before beating Noah Atubolu in his 100th Bundesliga appearance.
Six minutes later, Dortmund struck again. Samuele Inacio, making his first start at the age of 18, carried the ball forward after a turnover and fed Julian Brandt, whose cross from the right found Serhou Guirassy unmarked in the center to make it 2-0 as Freiburg struggled to escape the pressure.
The visitors, who made seven changes from their cup defeat in Stuttgart and were without Yuito Suzuki, Yohan Manzambi and Matthias Ginter in the squad, offered little before the interval. Nicolas Hofler and Lucas Holer had harmless efforts, while Bensebaini underlined Dortmund's superiority in the 32nd minute by heading in Julian Ryerson's corner to make it 3-0.
Freiburg's clearest first-half chance came only after Dortmund eased off, with Holer forcing Gregor Kobel into a quick save from a throw-in. By halftime, the hosts had registered 11 shots to Freiburg's three.
The second half was played at a lower tempo. Freiburg improved briefly and thought it had reduced the deficit in the 55th minute through Lukas Kubler, but the goal was ruled out after a VAR review for offside. Bensebaini then headed against the post from another Ryerson corner.
Kovac used the closing stages to rotate, with Fabio Silva replacing Guirassy before finishing a move involving Beier, Carney Chukwuemeka and Daniel Svensson in the 87th minute.
The victory also marked Dortmund's 600th Bundesliga home win. Freiburg dropped to eighth, missing the chance to pull away from Frankfurt in the race for seventh place, which already guarantees at least Conference League qualification.
"We are of course delighted to have won our 1,000th home game. I think the team played very well over the full 90 minutes. Compliments and congratulations to the players for already securing Champions League qualification," said Dortmund coach Kovac.
Elsewhere, fourth-placed VfB Stuttgart was held to a 1-1 draw by Werder Bremen but remains fourth.