The Borussia Dortmund pros made no secret of their frustration with this conclusion of the Champions League preliminary round. Feeling that they had qualified for the last sixteen a week ago, coach Edin Terzic’s team took it easy in the 1-1 (1-1) draw in Copenhagen. Without Jude Bellingham, who was completely rested, there was a lack of penetrating power and defensive stability on Wednesday.
“It wasn’t a good game from us today. We really lacked the intensity, against the ball, with the ball,” criticized midfielder Emre Can at DAZN. “We jogged around, we walked around, but we never had the intensity. National player Nico Schlotterbeck said. “We lacked a bit of cleanliness in the passing game today. We lost a lot of balls.”
In front of 31,900 spectators in the Parken Stadium, Hakon Haraldsson (41st) scored the deserved draw for the bottom of the table. Even the interim lead by Thorgan Hazard (23rd) did not give BVB any security. “We didn’t have a good grip, we didn’t press aggressively enough,” said coach Edin Terzic.
BVB got off to a superior start, but were always prone to making mistakes. Coach Edin Terzic’s team needed the help of Gregor Kobel in goal, as they did last time. All the more bitter for the Westphalians that the 24-year-old was probably substituted at half-time. At first, however, he played well as usual: Kobel parried a header from Roony Bardghji (9′), then a shot from the Icelandic center forward Haraldsson (12′).
Terzic used the game to give some of his busy professionals a break. As expected, Bellingham, Brandt, Youssoufa Moukoko and Niklas Süle were rested and initially sat on the bench. Instead, Emre Can, Giovanni Reyna, Felix Passlack and Anthony Modeste joined the starting lineup. And that quickly paid off, at least in the person of Passlack.
Hazard, who had recently been deployed at full-back, was there after his cross and put the ball in the goal. It was BVB’s first real chance and actually this goal should have given security. But only actually. Because instead of wanting to add more, BVB started to wobble again. Kobel was able to save once against Viktor Claesson (29th).
A few minutes later the Swiss was powerless. Copenhagen used one of Dortmund’s many ball losses during build-up play to counterattack, which Haraldsson (41′) skillfully completed with a shot into the far corner. This saved the Danish champions the shame of being the fourth team in Champions League history after Deportivo La Coruna (2004/05), Maccabi Haifa (2009/10) and Dinamo Zagreb (2016/17) without a goal in the first round.
12:3 shots on goal in favor of the bottom of the table reflected the weak performance of Dortmund in the 1st half. It didn’t get much better after the break either. Donyell Malen (53rd minute) initially had a huge chance to take the lead, but after assisting Karim Adeyemi the Dutchman didn’t even get the ball on target from a great position. Then the usual picture: sometimes a bad pass from Nico Schlotterbeck, sometimes a blunder from Emre Can or others – the Danes were invited again and again.
Only when Moukoko and Brandt came on in the 63rd minute did BVB get better, at least offensively. Barely on the pitch, attacker Moukoko hit the post with a long-range shot. Brandt now boosted almost every attack. BVB was no longer really mandatory. In the 90th minute, Rasmus Falk even missed Copenhagen’s huge chance.
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