Dhe situation at Borussia Dortmund remains complicated during those first days of December, when the club would have loved to get rid of the frustration of the Bundesliga defeat against Cologne from the previous weekend. With a rather gray 1: 1 against Lazio Rome they have achieved their minimum goal, the round of 16 of the Champions League, but the team is currently experiencing a small performance downturn. Raffael Guerreiro had put BVB in the lead, Ciro Immobile equalized with a penalty in this first European Cup game of 2020, which BVB had to contest without the Champions League long-term goal scorer Erling Haaland.
The Norwegian had scored 16 times during his twelve missions in this competition, but now a few muscle fibers had torn in his final training. “He won’t play until the beginning of January,” said coach Lucien Favre; that was a shock even before kick-off. For a long time, Dortmund had survived these weeks of high stress relatively well: “We had no injuries,” explained the coach, “and now suddenly” his team was also hit.
Emre Can and Thomas Meunier were also out, and to make matters worse, Mats Hummels was injured in stoppage time and hobbled off the pitch. “Mats is a tough boy, I hope that he will be available again on Saturday,” said Marco Reus later in a first reaction. The fact that the coach had made seven changes to the starting XI compared to the previous Bundesliga weekend was certainly due to the poor performance in the 1: 2 against 1. FC Köln. Jadon Sancho, Axel Witsel and Julian Brandt initially sat outside.
“Incredible. This is theater “
This renewed team played more committed and devoted, at least in the first half. However, even on this day, better actions were mixed with errors and inaccuracies. For a long time there was a lack of good ideas in building up the game, and balls were lost several times, which provided a good basis for attacks by the Romans. And on the offensive, BVB’s actions often seemed too cumbersome. But the Bundesliga club often has a hard time dealing with well-organized opponents.
The first good chance had the Lazio professional Joaquin Correa, who shot goalkeeper Roman Bürki from close range (19th). A little later, Sergej Milincovic-Savic appeared in a good position in front of the Dortmund goal at the end of the most beautiful attack of the first half, but played sideways instead of finishing himself. (28th). Dortmund were dangerous shortly after with two shots in quick succession from Marco Reus and Giovanni Reyna, but in both cases the angle was relatively acute (29th). The game was now relatively even, without becoming high-class, and as a goalless first Half-time became more and more likely, BVB still scored. After an intercepted long ball from the opposing goalkeeper Reina and an assist from Hazard, Guerreiro managed the somewhat happy 1-0 (45th).
Ironically, Immobile (right) hits: The Lazio striker once played for BVB.
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Image: Reuters
The longer the second half lasted, the clearer the Dortmund tendency to carelessness became. Lazio played more and more forcefully. After an hour Bürki had to fend off a dangerous 16-meter shot by Immobile, and five minutes later Milinkovic-Savic fell in a duel with Nico Schulz, who had recently been substituted for the ailing Guerreiro, in the penalty area. Immobile converted the following penalty, which was considered controversial by many BVB professionals and also on the Dortmund sideline, to 1: 1 (67th). This goal left its mark on Borussia, which was very insecure for a few minutes. Delaney still had a chance to take the lead (78th), but the guests from Italy remained more dangerous, Bürki saved several times.
“We had our chances to score, we could make it 2-0 or 2-1. We get an unnecessary penalty that isn’t. That’s incredible. It’s theater, he’s in the swimming pool. He is exaggerating. But we’re qualified, period. Finished. That’s the most important thing, ”said coach Favre after the final whistle. And captain Reus summed up: “We were too low in the second half and let ourselves fall far behind. We no longer had access, that can’t happen at home. We would have liked to have finished the group first with a win. “
BVB has thus reached the knockout phase of the Champions League, but they are not about to take a relaxed trip to the final game of the group phase in St. Petersburg. It’s still about first place in the final table, and that can be important because, as the winner of the group, you would be drawn to runner-up in the group in the next round. This could be a crucial advantage on the way through the next round.
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