55 games for Borussia Dortmund, one goal. This is Thomas Meunier’s record before the Bundesliga game against SC Freiburg. After this, everyone is talking about the Belgian, the double goalscorer, the new “header monster”. Now, of all times, he could be injured.
“They don’t call me David Beckham anymore, from today they call me Zinedine Zidane. Although I like Beckham better.” After the Bundesliga game against SC Freiburg, Dortmund’s Thomas Meunier is in a particularly good mood. At ESPN, he’s already joking about the new superlative comparison his team is supposed to impute to him. The Belgian has every reason to do so: with his two goals, he leads BVB to a 5-1 victory.
Two goals in one game, two header goals. “They’re kind of a miracle to me, to be honest,” he tells US media. Otherwise, the defender is not exactly known for his offensive actions. In 55 games for Dortmund there has been one goal so far, dated January 16, 2021 against 1. FSV Mainz 05. It took almost exactly a year for Meunier to score again.
And then twice – and by head. “I’ve never scored a headed goal in a club game, once for the national team but never at club. I play defensively, I’m used to being the last man standing,” he told ESPN. The fact that Erling Haaland scored twice again hardly caused a stir. The league has already gotten used to this with the top striker.
“A lot of things were done right and well today”
After the game, there is still talk about Haaland, but that is due to his club criticism: “I actually only want to play football, but they are pushing me,” says Haaland on the Norwegian TV broadcaster Viaplay Fotball about the upcoming contract negotiations. His two goals are not so unusual that they also underline how much BVB needs the striker in the team. They were goals 14 and 15 in the Norwegian’s 13th league game this season.
These two fell from open play, as did Mo Dahoud’s fifth goal. But the two standard gates are more striking. No coincidence, as Meunier emphasizes, but the result of this week’s training. The coaches would have set them well: “We did everything we had to do.” And yet his two goals are of course noticeable, as are his teammates. “It’s a bit unusual that Thomas Meunier found his way into the goal twice today, but basically it’s not all coincidence,” emphasizes Julian Brandt at DAZN.
Meunier threatens to fail
Coach Marco Rose is also satisfied with the game: “We did a lot of things right and well today. The first half was extremely strong,” he says at DAZN. With the clear victory, BVB is at least temporarily within three points of leaders FC Bayern. The record champions play at 1. FC Köln in the afternoon (3.30 p.m. in the ntv.de live ticker). “We always say that we want to be at the top and would like to bring the trophy back to Dortmund,” said Rose. “Accordingly, it’s about us taking care of our own development and performance and not changing our standards. We have to correctly classify criticism – but also a good game like today.”
Meunier does the same thing at ESPN: “Today we were the team that everyone expects every week.” A sentence that fits, by which BVB must be measured. Already on Tuesday (8.45 p.m. in the ntv.de live ticker) the next game is coming up, in the DFB Cup we’re going to second division club FC St. Pauli. Ironically, the Belgian double goal scorer could fail for this round of 16. Meunier has to be substituted with a swollen foot a quarter of an hour before the final whistle against Freiburg. Rose fears his failure as much as Emre Can’s: “It would be bad if Thomas were missing now, he sprained his ankle.” Not a perfect ending to a perfect Thomas Meunier game.