Marco Reus and Co. attacked the Dutch referee Danny Makkelie after the end of the Dortmund Champions League dreams and felt severely disadvantaged. Because after a questionable penalty by Kai Havertz, BVB was eliminated in the round of 16 of the premier class.
The German national player in the service of FC Chelsea caused BVB to lose 0: 2 (0: 1) in the second leg of the eighth final with his converted hand penalty after two controversial decisions (53rd minute) for the end of the most recent BVB successful series with the last ten wins in ten competitive games. In front of 39,392 spectators at Stamford Bridge in London, Raheem Sterling (44th minute) had previously put England 1-0 ahead.
The big excitement was the controversial hand penalty, which referee Makkelie only gave after studying the video and then had it repeated after Havertz first hit the post. Nevertheless, the deserved knockout was the result of an offensive and passive performance by coach Edin Terzic’s team, who after the 1-0 win in the first leg hoped to make it into the last eight teams for the first time since 2021 and additional income of over ten million euros had made. Unfortunately, BVB also has to cope with a longer absence of the recently strong Julian Brandt.
Sammer and Can scold Makkelie
“The penalty plus the repetition is a real scandal. I don’t need a rule keeper either. There are personalities for such situations. Makkelie is a very, very arrogant person,” scolded BVB consultant Matthias Sammer on Amazon Prime Video.
Emre Can saw it similarly: “How can he give a second penalty, I just don’t understand it. He hits the post, done,” said the national player and was annoyed with the referee: “He was arrogant the whole game. We have still played a decent game. I’m proud to be a part of this team. We don’t have to be ashamed. We deservedly lost because of the referee. He might be afraid of the fans, then UEFA should send another referee. That’s fine extremely painful.” BVB coach Edin Terzic spoke of a “very tough decision”.
Havertz, on the other hand, was very relieved. “There has been a lot of pressure on the boiler in the last few months. Things are not looking good in the league, we are out of both cup competitions. That’s why the Champions League is the last tournament for us. Today we made a statement again.” said the former Leverkusen player and understood Dortmund’s anger: “We would be just as angry if it had gone that way for us. (…) In the end I’m sorry because I have a friend or two there.”
Brandt replaced early on injured
BVB, who had reached the stadium 15 minutes late, had to suppress some bad news first. It was already clear after the final training session in the morning that first-choice goalkeeper Gregor Kobel would not be able to play between the posts because of a muscular problem in his thigh. Another guarantee of success in recent weeks broke after just three minutes when Brandt grabbed his back left thigh and had to be substituted. Giovanni Reyna came into play for the German national player, who has been outstanding since the winter break.
With the handicap, BVB went into an initial phase in which Chelsea started with a lot of force. It was also clear that the Blues have only scored five goals in twelve games since the beginning of the year. Joao Felix (6th) and Kai Havertz (8th) missed in a promising position. Already in the first leg, the English had lost a better position with a poor conversion of chances.
Kepa scratches Reus free kick from the corner
The black and yellow needed a good ten minutes before they were in the game. Led by impeller Jude Bellingham, BVB got the game under control. And not much was missing, then Marco Reus would have almost scored the opening goal. Chelsea keeper Kepa just scratched his free kick from 18 meters out of the corner (17th).
Now the stage was set for a thrilling knockout game. At Chelsea, national player Havertz was always in the spotlight. And the winning goal scorer from the 2021 Champions League final was unlucky twice: First when he hit the inside post (28th). The former Leverkusen player did better on the next try, but his goal in the top left corner of the goal was disallowed because Sterling had been offside the previous chance (38′).
Meyer powerless when conceding
Both the Sterling attempt and Felix’s shot shortly afterwards (40′) made a great save by Alexander Meyer. The goalkeeper, who was in goal for Jahn Regensburg in the second division last season, was a strong Kobel substitute, as he was in the 2-1 win against RB Leipzig. But when the pressure became too great towards the end of the first half, Meyer was powerless too. Sterling scored from ten yards for a well-deserved lead.
And immediately after the break things got even worse for BVB: After a cross from Ben Chilwell, the ball bounced onto Marius Wolf’s slightly spread arm, after the intervention of the video assistant, Makkelie pointed to the point – a questionable decision. But that’s not all: Havertz took the penalty to the inside post, but was allowed to try again because the Dutch referee thought some BVB players had moved into the penalty area too early. Makkelie did not take into account that Chelsea professional Chilwell had run into the penalty area earlier. Havertz did better on the second try.
Only after the 0:2 BVB showed a reaction and pushed the offensive game. But the chances of Jude Bellingham (58th), Marius Wolf (65th) and Niklas Süle (72nd) remained unused. The substitutions of fresh attackers like Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Donyell Malen did not bring a goal either.
