Borussia Dortmund used the second match point in the fight for a place in the round of 16 in the Champions League. With the 0-0 win over the star ensemble from Manchester City around former BVB professional Erling Haaland, the fifth in the Bundesliga made the return to the circle of European football nobility perfect.
Meanwhile, RB Leipzig disenchanted defending champions Real Madrid with an impressive performance, but narrowly missed out on qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League. The Saxons inflicted the first defeat after 16 competitive games on Tuesday evening in a 3-2 (2-1) win. Because Shakhtar Donetsk played 1-1 at Celtic Glasgow at the same time, Leipzig is not through yet despite a three-point lead over the Ukrainians.
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 next Wednesday in Copenhagen is meaningless. One year after the embarrassing first-round elimination, the Revierclub can once again count on lavish additional income.
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.
As the season progressed, Manchester enforced their well-known possession football. But Borussia’s defense remained stable and also had Haaland under control. The fact that Guardiola even replaced him 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.
The game was not even 20 minutes old when Real’s world goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois hammered the ball into his own net out of sheer frustration. The Belgian was annoyed that RB started like unleashed. Courtois saved a header from André Silva from a corner in the 13th minute, but Gvardiol headed the rebound into the goal. Just five minutes later, Nkunku chased the ball under the bar from close range, from where it bounced over the line to make it 2-0. Then the frustrated Courtois threw him back into the net. Never before had any other team scored twice against Real within the first 18 minutes of a premier group game.
At first nothing went well for the defending champion. Which was also due to the fact that Leipzig found the game really strong. The Saxons pressed the opponent up as usual and thus forced ball wins. Nevertheless, Real found the game sluggish and took control during the first half. Leipzig took the pace out of the game and suddenly made mistakes in the transition game – and that took revenge. A strong individual action was enough for the guests to score the goal. Marco Asensio got through nicely in the penalty area and crossed into the centre, where Vinicius headed in unchallenged to make it 1-2.
This is one of the reasons why Rose kept cheering on his players from the sidelines, went with them and called for more aggressiveness in the game against the ball. The coach also made more personnel and brought in Werner, who had recovered from an infection, and Spain’s national player Dani Olmo. And Werner immediately had a great chance to make it 3-1. After a duel with national team colleague Antonio Rüdiger, his shot just missed. A little later, Werner did better. After preliminary work by Mohamed Simakan, the attacker only had to push in at the second post. Immediately before the final whistle, Real came up again. After a foul by Nkunku in their own penalty area, Real received a penalty, which Rodrygo converted.
Next week, Wednesday, a draw at Shakhtar in the last group game would be enough for Leipzig to advance to the knockout phase.
