Pre-Season Friendly: Borussia Moenchengladbach 1 Borussia Dortmund 0

A late penalty from Filip Daems gave Borussia Moenchengladbach a pre-season victory over Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund on Saturday.

Daems scored with the final kick of the match to move Gladbach into the final of the non-competitive Telekom Cup, the captain converting from the spot after Dortmund keeper Roman Weidenfeller had tripped Raffael.

Both teams named strong starting line-ups ahead of the 60-minute game at Borussia-Park, with attackers Raffael and Max Kruse involved for Gladbach, and the likes of Marco Reus and Robert Lewandowski included from the start for Juergen Klopp’s men.

The contest began at a surprisingly high tempo, Raffael rasping an effort over the bar from 20 yards out after seven minutes before Jonas Hofmann responded almost immediately, forcing a fine save from Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Dortmund began to take control as the game progressed, Reus and Hofmann keeping Ter Stegen busy as Gladbach struggled to deal with the dynamism of Klopp’s attacking forces.

Chances proved few and far between for the hosts, and they were not able to truly test Weidenfeller, who reached half-time with his clean sheet still very much intact.

Dortmund continued to have the better of the play after the break, but found Ter Stegen in superb form as the Gladbach shot-stopper denied Nuri Sahin in the early stages of the second half.

However, despite the visitors’ dominance, Gladbach almost snatched victory six minutes from time when Weidnenfeller reacted well to collect a Raffael lob after the Brazilian had been excellently put through by Kruse.

Reus went even closer to leading Dortmund to triumph when his clipped effort was tipped onto the bar by Ter Stegen.

Still, that proved to be little more than a prelude to the real drama of the match, as Weidenfeller was robbed of possession by Raffael before bringing down the Gladbach playmaker in the dying seconds, allowing Daems to step up and seal his side’s place in Sunday’s final.