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Champions League: BVB wins against Chelsea

Mith an impressive choreography, before the 1-0 win against Chelsea, the supporters of Borussia Dortmund celebrated the culture of away trips to the various European cup nations, which, due to the pandemic, had been possible for so long at best with restrictions.

After this success, the BVB supporters now have a good chance that there will be more trips through Europe after the second leg in London in March: A goal by Dortmund’s Karim Adeyemi (63rd minute) decided the gripping duel between two teams, who were keen to get one step closer to the Quarterfinals.

Borussia defended themselves with great willpower in a game in which their captain Marco Reus sat on the bench for 90 minutes. The trio in the center of midfield formed the more robust colleagues Emre Can, Salih Özcan and Jude Bellingham. He wanted to keep the middle as compact as possible, coach Edin Terzic explained his considerations before the game and thus tried to defuse the long-simmering debate about this special personality. “We are sure that he can play a very, very important role for us today,” said the coach, recalling the DFB Cup game at VfL Bochum a week earlier, when Reus had come on as a substitute and scored the winning goal .

Two icons of yesteryear on the bench

He wasn’t needed that evening. The fact that the captain was not allowed to play in this important confrontation is a signal. In duels that may be decided by duel strength and defensive consistency, Reus is no longer the first choice. By the way, Mats Hummels was also on the bench. He and Reus, both icons of yore, who occupy the top positions in the group hierarchy as captain and vice-captain, are becoming less and less important – also because the game is becoming more and more physical, and the duo has never been among the strongest players in this respect.

Incidentally, this also applies to Raphael Guerreiro, who was in the starting XI, in which case Terzic apparently wanted more playful quality on the pitch than robustness. That almost took revenge after half an hour when the Portuguese lost a ball and then moved very leisurely onto the defensive, despite the attack running down his side. In the end, Joao Felix had the best chance for the English in the first half, but shot wide of the target from 14 meters (32′).


The completion of a splendid solo: goalkeeper Kepa was left behind
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Image: AFP

In fact, the Dortmund team never seemed really stable against the Londoners, who are in a disappointing tenth place in the Premier League and struggle to score goals in most games. On this evening, however, the offensive around Kai Havertz and the winter additions Felix and Mykhailo Mudryk as well as Hakim Ziyech posed a lot of danger. Again and again, the highly talented players from London launched extremely fast attacks in front of the Dortmund goal – and it quickly became clear: BVB may have won six football games in a row in Germany in 2023, but a different wind is blowing in the knockout phase of the Champions League.

After just two minutes, Nico Schlotterbeck had to prevent Mudryk from having a great chance with a risky tackle in his own penalty area, shortly afterwards goalkeeper Gregor Kobel saved against Havertz in dire need and after 15 minutes the ball was in the Dortmund goal. But Thiago Silva, like Diego Maradona, illegally steered the ball into the goal with his “Hand of God”; he saw a yellow card for the action.

Ready to hug the Westfalenstadion


Ready to hug the Westfalenstadion
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Image: Reuters

Nevertheless, Chelsea were actually more dangerous in all phases of the game; in the first half mainly after counterattacks, after the break also with a lot of ball possession. Felix alone could have ensured a comfortable half-time lead. After his first big chance, he only hit the crossbar from eleven meters (38′), while Terzic’s team had to be satisfied with more mediocre chances: Sometimes it was a long-range shot from Adeyemi over the bar (34′) or then a Attempt by Sébastien Haller from an acute angle, which went wide of the goal (27th). The most dangerous was a 16-metre shot by Marius Wolf, almost two meters wide of the post (42).

Kobel made strong saves several times

After the break, Chelsea became more and more superior, but Kobel saved several times. For example, with a great shot by Reece James (62nd). But it was Dortmund who scored the goal: Guerreiro grabbed a corner for the English to free himself, after which Karim Adeyemi got the ball. With a spectacular 50-metre sprint, the fast attacker passed first Enzo Fernandez, then goalkeeper Kepa and casually pushed the ball into the goal.

Now the game finally became a black and yellow defensive battle. Every move was cheered like a small triumph – and BVB was lucky too, for example when Kobel only inadequately blocked a shot by Kalidou Koulibaly, but Can just saved it on the line (78th).

Dortmund won the first part of the coaching duel between Terzic and Chelsea’s Graham Potter. The two are old friends after they completed their training as football teachers together in England, while Terzic worked as an assistant to Slaven Bilic at West Ham United. Since then the contact has never been broken. Now the two can look forward to an exciting meeting in the second leg in London on March 7th.

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