Borussia Dortmund won the group in the Champions League. In the historical debut of the “child prodigy” Youssoufa Moukoko, BVB won 2-1 (0-1) at Zenit St. Petersburg in the freezing cold, even without nine ailing professionals, and kept Lazio away. Thus, the Dortmunders go out of the way of giant opponents in the Manchester City or Liverpool FC category in the round of 16.
Lukasz Piszczek (68th) and the former Zenit professional Axel Witsel (78th) scored for the severely weakened BVB, who had made it to the knockout round early last week. Sebastian Driussi (16.) had put the hosts in the lead. There was no longer any chance of third place, which leads to the Europa League, for the bottom of the league, Zenit.
With his substitution (58th) at the age of 16 years and 18 days, Moukoko became the youngest player in the history of the premier class. BVB lacked a complete team, which affected the teamwork. In addition to top star Haaland, Thomas Meunier and Thomas Delaney, Manuel Akanji and Raphael Guerreiro also did not get fit in time. Mahmoud Dahoud, Reinier and Mateu Morey stayed at home, Jadon Sancho, Gio Reyna and goalkeeper Roman Bürki, who was replaced by Marwin Hitz, were initially spared.
“We really want to win the group,” said sports director Michael Zorc to the team via Sky, although coach Lucien Favre had called first place “not relevant” a few days earlier. BVB captain Marco Reus struggled to replace Haaland at minus five degrees Celsius, like against Lazio (1: 1), but BVB rarely came into dangerous positions. Before the first chance by Thorgan Hazard (19th) the guests were already behind because Nico Schulz refused to fight Alexej Sutormin on the left. Mats Hummels faked Driussi’s shot untenable.
BVB became more active, but remained too open at the back. After a through pass, Serdar Azmoun overcame the hopeless heat from a narrow offside position (33.). On the other side, Jude Bellingham headed freestanding over the Zenit goal (43.), Reus then had bad luck with a flick on the post.
Security in the Corona hotspot was more important to BVB than the sporty. After a training ground, the club hadn’t even looked around: “Airport – hotel – game – airport” was the motto. Accordingly, the players stretched on a carpet in the hotel room at noon, and the landing in Paderborn was planned for 2.15 a.m. on Wednesday night.
The hunt for appointments is now continuing at an undiminished pace: before Christmas there are three league games and the second round of the cup at Eintracht Braunschweig on the program. The following miniature break ends on January 3rd.
.
