Erling Haaland was in the best of moods and congratulated his old colleagues from Dortmund on getting ahead in the Champions League. It was a 0-0 that everyone could live with. Because Borussia Dortmund used the second match point in the fight for entry into the round of 16 in the premier class.
With the division of points against the star ensemble of Manchester City, the fifth in the Bundesliga made the return to the circle of European football nobility perfect. And Man City secured early group victory.
Two weeks after missing the first chance at the same venue against Sevilla (1-1), coach Edin Terzic’s team got an early happy ending in front of 81,000 spectators in the sold-out Dortmund stadium. Because the direct duel with the Spaniards (4:1/1:1) was won, the last group game in Copenhagen is meaningless. One year after the embarrassing first-round elimination, the Revierclub can once again count on lavish additional income.
“We rewarded ourselves with the point”
“It was very important for us to take a point and not lose. We’re super happy that we qualified. We wanted to continue where we left off. We started really well and even had a few Chance,” said BVB keeper Gregor Kobel, who saved a penalty, on Amazon Prime Video. Looking at Haaland, he added: “I was actually looking forward to him taking the penalty, but unfortunately he wasn’t on the pitch anymore.”
For Jude Bellingham, getting through means “a lot” after failing last season. “It’s a great pleasure. We want to go as far as possible.” Coach Terzic was also completely satisfied: “We were rewarded with the point. We played a really good game in the first half. We kept them away from the goal.”
Manchester City rested their stars
Unlike Borussia, the Group G leaders from England could afford to rest stars like Kevin de Bruyne, who initially only sat on the bench. Former Bielefeld Stefan Ortega made his first competitive appearance for regular keeper Ederson. Coach Pep Guardiola’s waiver of some top performers made it a little easier for the Revierclub. Even without captain Marco Reus and winger Donyell Malen, he got off to a lively start and tried to defy the favorites with fast-paced football. The opposing defense faltered for the first time when Karim Adeyemi (16th) came to the end in a promising position, but failed with a shot that was too weak for Ortega.
Borussia could get over the fact that Manchester were using their well-known ball possession football as the playing time increased. In the end, the defense was stable and Haaland was also under control. Black and yellow switched to counterattacking and had the next chance through Giovanni Reyna (26th), but Ortega defused it again. And if Youssoufa Moukoko had scored from close range nine minutes later after a nice pass from Adeyemi, the hosts would have deservedly taken the lead. With three minutes remaining, Moukoko had another chance to take the lead. But like Adeyemi and Reyna before, the undershot shot wasn’t a problem for Ortega.
Successful tactics from Dortmund
The visitors, however, had their first chance just before half-time when Nathan Aké headed the ball over the goal from a Phil Foden free-kick. 6: 3 shots on goal in favor of Borussia adequately reflected the balance of power until the break.
The fact that Guardiola even replaced Haaland, who had been inconspicuous until then, at half-time spoke for Dortmund’s successful tactics. However, Manchester did not appear particularly weakened. When Emre Can brought down his opponent Riyad Mahrez in the penalty area and thus caused a penalty kick, the lead for the guests was close: Mahrez failed despite a placed penalty kick at BVB keeper Gregor Kobel.
This gave the Terzic team only a limited boost: the defense came under more and more pressure because their own relief attacks failed to materialize. As in their 2-1 win in the first leg, England took control in the closing stages.
BVB squad Manchester City squad Information about the game
