SJude Bellingham was omnipresent while Borussia Dortmund’s game at Besiktas Istanbul was on, now the midfielder appeared in Erling Haaland’s TV interview after the final whistle and gave his colleague a big peck on the cheek. The Norwegian superstar smiled and said of his colleague who had become the defining figure of this precious 2: 1 (2: 0) success for Dortmund: “He is unbelievable, he is three years younger than me, it’s crazy.”
Bellingham scored the first goal himself, prepared Haalands 2-0, won duels and prevented opposing counterattacks. Of course, Marco Rose was also satisfied with the 18-year-old Englishman’s performance. But the coach preferred to talk about team performance when asked about Bellingham: “I think we were basically good today,” he said. “We mastered a difficult task, had difficult phases and still deservedly won.”
Only at the beginning of the game did the BVB seem a bit taken by surprise by the energy of the opponent, and seemed unsettled. “In the first 20 minutes Besiktas was more intense and clear in the game,” said Rose after the strong goalkeeper Gregor Kobel had to fend off a dangerous shot by Michy Batshuayi early on (6th). But the Dortmunders caught up. The Champions League creates a slightly bigger magic than these less prominent opponents in everyday Bundesliga life, against whom BVB regularly loses points in the less big games. And so the Dortmunders succeeded in what coach Marco Rose had asked for: “Make a Champions League game out of it”.
After participating in the round of 16 in 2020 and reaching the quarter-finals in 2021, the club currently belongs to the group of more mature Champions League teams, which can demonstrate their individual superiority in duels with smaller opponents from weaker leagues. “This feeling of being able to score a goal at any time is important,” said sports director Michael Zorc before kick-off, and this is exactly what BVB believes at the moment.
Because Erling Haaland is often unstoppable, because Marco Reus is in good shape, Donyell Malen is getting better and better in the team. And because with Bellingham a great talent is wearing the yellow jersey, which sometimes doesn’t get the attention his impressive achievements deserve in Haaland’s shadow.
At the end of the difficult initial phase, Mahmoud Dahoud played a beautiful diagonal pass to the right flank, where Thomas Meunier passed the ball precisely with a contact in Bellingham’s run (20th). The young Englishman scored from an acute angle to make it 0: 1 (20th). This took its momentum away from both the Istanbul players on the pitch and the crowd in the stadium, which is one of the loudest in the world. Haaland (27th) and Marco Reus (28th) missed further good chances before the 2-0 in stoppage time of the first half then turned into an effective goal.
Again Bellingham had his feet in the game: at the end of a dribble on the left wing to the baseline, he played a back pass to Haaland, who had no trouble pushing the ball into the net from six meters. It was the 21st Champions League goal in the Norwegian’s 17th game.
During the break, Rose tried to stabilize his team, Julian Brandt left the field, Axel Witsel came into the game as the second classic six next to Dahoud. This was supposed to prevent a real pressure phase from the Turks, and that worked out quite well. Batshuayi missed a very good chance to make it 1: 2 (67th), a goal at this point could have opened the game again. But overall, Besiktas was simply not as strong as Dortmund. “That was a deserved victory because we missed a lot of good chances,” said licensed player boss Sebastian Kehl.
Haaland (71.) and above all the substitute Ansgar Knauff (90. + 2), who hit the crossbar, missed the chance to finally decide the game, so that BVB had to tremble again in stoppage time. In the fourth minute of stoppage time, Francisco Montero headed the 1: 2 after a free kick by Miralem Pjanic. But the goal came too late, so that in the end the Dortmund team only had to be annoyed that after four Bundesliga games with a total of nine goals conceded, they had not played to zero again.
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