Starting the day in truly bizarre fashion we ended up at a medieval market in the cities old town with people dressed up parading swords and surrounded by gluwein, health and safety would have had a fit. Still everyone was in high spirits as the streets around the Westhellenweg were simply choc-a-bloc with yellow shirts. After tucking into a pre-match Currywurst and fries (really,do try this if you come to Germany) it was onto the U-bahn with the yellow brigade to the stadium.
Despite arriving two hours before kick off the area around the ground was a sea of black and yellow with a real buzz in the air, pockets of Wolfsburg supporters began to emerge and all was well as the two sets of fans descended on Strobels bar for a pre-match beer. Tickets collected, scarves purchased and a quick frisk from the stewards later it was time to start the show.
We were situated in the North-east corner of the stadium which acted as a neutral area with Wolfsburg fans joining us in the rows below but mainly dominated by Dortmund supporters, I'd been to the San Siro previously but be prepared for the steep incline on Dortmund's stands, those who suffer vertigo, this may not be for you, but the view of the action wherever you are is truly first class. Those in the above tiers, such as we were, are sure to get an added bonus of that yellow roof, seemingly imported from Lego-land along with unobstructed views of the action.
Dortmund were coming off the back of a 1-1 draw away at Stuttgart and with Wolfsburgs poor away form following them around like a bad smell, things looked like favouring the home side. Jurgen Klopp is the man around here, leading Borussia to the Bundesliga title last season and he paced the touchline throughout dressed in a yellow and grey Dortmund hooded top and a yellow cap, good on him. As the teams came out the rather impressive Sudtribune displayed a tombstone with a skull in the centre with the message 'Dortmund until the death' below, simply incredible.
It didn't take long for Dortmund to get into their stride, slick passing and fluid movement let Mario Gotze, highly rated young German international, into the box to place the ball into the far corner, the perfect start. Meanwhile in the stands we were joined by the Dortmund youth team and their official photographer,which was a first. After Kevin Grosskreutz emerged through on the Wolfsburg goal only to put his chance wide, Shinji Kagawa showed him how it was done moments after putting Dortmund 2-0 to the good.
The Sudtribune by this point were rocking, as were Wolfsburgs defence as Dortmund piled on the pressure but as half time approached it was to remain 2-0. Ex-Liverpool centre half Sotirios Kyrgiakos was at the heart of the Wolfsburg defence and looked way off the pace, but it was to be another player fresh from English football who got the away side back into the game, Alexander Hleb, formerly of Birmingham City and Arsenal caught goalkeeper Roman Wiedenfeller going for a stroll around the six yard box to tap in, game on.
Shortly after, a Dortmund corner kindly swung onto the head of Sven Bender who managed to force it over the line to restore the two goal cushion. Christian Trasch was featuring in Wolfsburgs central midfield but sadly Trasch was exactly what Wolfsburg resembled as Dortmund sprung the back line time and again resulting in the onrushing Robert Lewandowski one-on-one with the 'keeper to cooly chip the ball into the net, 4-1.
Wolfsburg by now had one foot on the team bus but not before Gotze struck again before the end to make it an incredible 5-1 to Borussia. The ground by now was a cauldron of noise and the Wolfsburg fans in front of us admirably stayed until the end despite their teams collapse. Signal Iduna Park really made an impression on us both, from the typically brilliant German service, the transport inclusive on the ticket as well as champagne football every week, it's really not a bad life for the Borussia faithful.
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