In a first half in which Borussia Dortmund looked lacklustre and Eintracht Braunschweig had the better of, a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang header from under a yard out gave 'die Schwarz-Gelb' an invaluable lead. A much better second half followed, as Braunschweig equalised through Benjamin Kessel from a corner, Dortmund stepped up their act and Aubameyang was on hand again to give Dortmund the advantage. Marco Reus then ran the show as both teams passed up a host of clear cut opportunities to add to the scoresheet. The away side managed to hold out for a huge win and climb closer to their target of second place.

All stats pointed towards Braunschweig proving a tough nut to crack for Dortmund, having a better head to head record against BVB and also boasting more clean sheets than the Westphalia side, Jürgen Klopp's men came into the came with just two points from their last twelve and almost out of the Champions League places. While BVB seemed lacking in defence, despite the return of Mats Hummels. It was in attack they strengthened, as they confirmed the signing of Milos Jojic before their game with the Northerners. Michael Zorc commented on the attacking midfielder, " We believe Milos will help us in the long term. He's an exciting midfielder." Braunschweig's main signing had been Håvard Nielsen from Red Bull Salzburg, and his debut against Werder Bremen, despite not scoring, looked promising. This all overshadowed by Jakub Blaszczykowski's ACL tear and of course the friendship between Klopp and Thorsten Lieberknecht, as the latter aimed to get one over on his old friend. 

It was the home side that started brightest. Norweigan Nielsen was denied by a sterling tackle from Nuri Sahin and Jan Hochscheidt, returning to the side for the first time since September, had a shot comfortably saved by Roman Weidenfeller. In truth the game wasn't much a of a spectacle in the first fifteen minutes, but Dortmund had a very fair penalty appeal waved away by referee Marco Fritz, after Omar Elabdellaoui semmingly handled in the area. Hummels seemed rusty on his return after missing much of the Hinrunde, and it showed as a rusty pass led to a Braunschweig corner as Benjamin Kessel headed over. In truth, BVB looked a shadow of their former selves, with their renowned short and snappy passing being inaccurate and the pressing game yet to get going, Braunschweig were by far the better side. Dortmund then began to come into the game, getting most of their joy down the left hand side, with Mkhitaryan and Reus doing their utmost to create an opening. The first real chance for the away side came when Nuri Sahin stepped up to a costless-kick in a similar position to his goal against Augsburg last week, but Daniel Davari denied him a third Bundesliga goal of the season with a decent save. The pressure began to tell and just after the half hour, Dortmund took a slightly undeserved lead. The slick play that was lacking in the opening exchanges suddenly came back to Dortmund as they cut apart Braunschweig's defence, Robert Lewandowski chipped over a despairing Davari and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was there to head in from less than a yard. The Gabonese international had his tenth goal of the season and this saw BVB grow considerably in confidence. Aubameyang almost had a very similar second goal as he linked up with Lewandowski again, but it was ruled out for offside, albeit marginally. Neither team threatened afterwards, although Henrikh Mkhitaryan was booked for an unruly challenge on Nielsen.

Dortmund began the second half in the same vein as they finished the first, with Marco Reus being denied one-on-one by Davari and then Hummels firing over from the resulting corner. As the half went on, Braunschweig came into it more and then they got a very much deserved goal. In the fifty-fourth minute Benjamin Kessel scored from a set-piece, Dortmund's usual undoing, a poor corner in truth was flicked on at the front post and Kessel was there to slam home, despite Roman Weidenfeller getting a sizeable hand to it. The game fell into a lull, with Braunschweig still probably edging it and when Dortmund did get onto the ball, any move that went threw Mkhitaryan looked likely to break down. Though, when all told, Dortmund had the class to make the break through. Reus picked up the ball on the half-way line and ran at the Braunschweig defence, as they backed off, space opened up for Aubameyang and he slotted home past Davari into the bottom left corner to give Dortmund the lead again after sixty-five minutes. That was Aubameyang's eleventh goal of the season, as he throws his hat into the ring to replace Lewandowski as Dortmund's main man. BVB looked to build upon the lead and Marco Reus set about that in spectacular fashion as Davari had to claw away a costless-kick from thirty-five yards. Afterwards, Mkhitaryan struck the post and Dortmund conrtived to miss several golden opportunites to win the game comfortably, Robert Lewandowski also came close twice and was denied by a fine last ditch tackle from Kessel. Yet Braunschweig fought right to the last and after Bellarabi kicked air instead of the ball, the golden chance fell to Ermin Bicakcic in the final minute. Dortmund's set-piece weakness was again expossed as the Bosnian found five yards of costless space, but his header hit the post as the whole Eintracht Stadion looked on in hope and aniexty. The win gives Dortmund their first in five and puts them a single point behind Bayer Leverkusen, while Eintracht Braunschweig prop up the table for yet another week as relegation looms large in Lower Saxony.