Christian Pulisic and Borussia Dortmund broke a winless streak at the DFB Pokal final, beating Timmy Chandler’s Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1. Ousmane Dembele put Dortmund up in the 8th minute with Ante Rebic equalizing in the 29th. Coming on at halftime, Pulisic started the sequence that led to a penalty, converted by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the 67th. Chandler subbed out in the 72nd minute. The win snaps three consecutive DFB Poal final losses for Dortmund
“I’m dead, completely dead,” Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel said. That was a really tough task. It was not our best game, but that doesn’t matter. We did it!! I’d like to pay a big compliment to my team. We made a good start and got the goal, but then we stopped playing football. We conceded that goal and were somewhat fortunate that we did not fall behind. The second period was almost a carbon copy of the first: we dropped off a little bit after taking the lead and played a lot of long balls. But no-one will be talking about that now because we won.”
Pulisic came on for Marco Reus, forced out with injury. That injury is a damaged cruciate ligament that will keep Reus out around six months.
“He injured himself in the goal and took a knock,” Tuchel said. “He had to keep receiving treatment, couldn’t sprint any more and had the feeling that something wasn’t quite right in his knee. It was clear at half-time that he wouldn’t be able to continue.”
