Noch the members of Borussia Dortmund do not know for sure whether the hoped-for progress has actually been made compared to previous years. They wanted to be more consistent and above all more stable in the big games, maybe even away. The largely weak performance, which resulted in a 3-1 defeat at Lazio Rome at the start of the new Champions League season, now indicates that many of the old problems are not over. The Italians played more mature, stronger-willed and more dynamic than their opponents from the area.
Lukasz Piszczek’s quick recovery had little help. The veteran Pole was able to play with the eye injury he sustained over the weekend and still Favre had to improvise. As expected, Thomas Delaney came into play in the unfamiliar position in the back three. It was more surprising that Marvin Hitz was again in goal, long-time number one Roman Bürki was only on the bench again. In the 1-0 win in Hoffenheim, the coach had explained that with the greater freshness of the previously ailing Bürki, that Favre was now holding on to Hitz, could be seen as an indication of a changing of the guard in this position. “It’s not a general decision,” said sports director Michael Zorc before the game, but that doesn’t mean that Bürki is still untouchable.
The decisive mistake before the 1-0 for Lazio was made by a Dortmund player who was used in his usual position and is intended as a stabilizing element, especially in these international duels: Thomas Meunier played a frivolous ball on Jude under the pressure of the cleverly pressing Italians Bellingham, who was delivered. Two passes after the Roman conquest of the ball, Ciro Immobile casually hit from seven meters to make it 1-0 (5th). The striker, who scored 36 goals for Lazio last season, played for BVB in the 2014/2015 season, but was never really happy there. Now he is the big star of the Romans and made an important contribution to the club’s first qualification for the group stage of the premier class after 13 years.
The early 1: 0 put Dortmund in a strange state of uncertainty, one mistake followed the next. Immobile had two more chances, after 23 minutes Joaquin Correa came completely free in the penalty area, but failed due to heat. Again and again, BVB’s defensive could be levered out with simple passes. In this respect, the second goal, which Luis Felipe headed after a corner (23rd), reflected the performance of the teams quite well. The official statistics show Hitz as an own goal scorer because the goalkeeper had hit the head before it flew into the Dortmund goal.
Almost every corner led to a great opportunity for the Romans, BVB looked downright paralyzed. After all, Dortmund also had two decent opportunities in the first half; Guerreiro (21st) and Meunier (28th) did not finish accurately enough from good shooting positions. But Lazio were clearly the better team.
In the second half Giovanni Reyna came on for 17-year-old Bellingham, who that evening had become the youngest Englishman ever to start a Champions League game. After all, Favre’s eleven no longer constantly allowed new great opportunities, and in the middle of the second half they actually developed something like dominance. Haaland promptly met Reynas from eleven meters after a nice cross pass to make it 2-1 (71.).
Hope lived for a few minutes, but Immobile played a clever cross pass at the end of a Roman counterattack, which substitute Jean-Daniel Akpa-Akpro used to score third for Lazio (76th). The Dortmunders did not recover from that.
BVB is not only starting the new Champions League season with a failure, self-confidence is also likely to have been scratched again. Away games in this competition were a basic problem in the years with Favre, and that doesn’t seem to change in the new year either.
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