Status: 21.02.2024 | Reading time: 4 minutes
“We don’t know that from the Bundesliga” – BVB frustration after a questionable penalty
Borussia Dortmund goes into the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 against Eindhoven with a solid starting position. A controversial penalty decision caused frustration in the BVB camp after the draw.
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The concentrated anger of Mats Hummels and other Dortmund players was vented after the draw in Eindhoven due to a dubious referee decision. However, the far greater handicap was – once again – BVB’s performance.
At the very end of his rant, Mats Hummels became analytical. “I saw a very beatable Eindhoven here. A team that is more controlled, strategic and dominant with the ball will win here,” said the national player after BVB’s 1-1 (1-0) draw at PSV Eindhoven. Previously, in an interview with Amazon Prime, he was upset for minutes about a referee’s whistle. Even the opposing players “laughed to death” about it, said Hummels.
The 35-year-old veteran, who played his 85th game in the Champions League on Tuesday, was encouraged in his anger by Matthias Sammer – with some very far-fetched theories. There are “too many bad decisions against German teams” and it is “time for us to attack Uefa,” rumbled the personal advisor to BVB managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke.
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Both referred to an incident in the 54th minute: Hummels reached for the ball during a rescue operation and played it – but subsequently also touched opponent Malik Tilmann, who fell in the penalty area during this action. Referee Srdjan Jovanovic whistled for a penalty and stuck with it even after consulting the video referee. Luuk de Jong converted the penalty to equalize. This was extremely annoying from Dortmund’s point of view, but given the large number of controversial penalty decisions in modern football, it was not the scandal of the century.
Unimaginative play structure, too many ball losses
It certainly wasn’t the only reason why BVB couldn’t win the first leg of the round of 16. Even Hummels had to realize this, as he continued his campaign for justice virtually. “Twitter waits for it. Twitter gets it,” he wrote in a post on the X platform: “What a joke penalty against us. Once again! …” He couldn’t believe that such decisions were still being made despite the VAR.
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This outrage received far more attention than the criticism of BVB’s style of play, which was also expressed by Hummels. The – once again – hardly met the high standards. Coach Edin Terzic’s team acted too erratically, their game structure was too unimaginative and the number of ball losses was too high. “We should have had a lot more composure on the ball. “We gave him away far too easily when things got a little too hectic,” criticized Hummels.
In doing so, he hit a point – the crucial one. Since the beginning of the year in Dortmund they have been working on better structuring their game. In the winter training camp, the focus was on building up the game. Afterwards, many training sessions continued to be worked on playing constructively from the back and dominating the opponent through ball circulation. But it still works far too rarely. Neither a good point haul in the Bundesliga (14 points from six games) nor the fact that BVB is still unbeaten in all competitions in 2024 can hide this. Dortmund’s level of play was only adequate once: in the 3-0 win over Freiburg a week and a half ago.
The situation raises fears
There were also many topics in Eindhoven that Terzic was not happy with. “After taking the lead, we didn’t manage to maintain the pressure. “We didn’t have enough control, especially in the second half,” said the 41-year-old. The coach described a series of recurring symptoms of stagnation: Instead of resolutely counterattacking after winning the ball, the Dortmund team hesitantly got involved in duels again and lost the ball again. “As a result, Eindhoven countered our own counterattacks. And then of course it gets difficult and there is hardly any relief. We didn’t manage to take control of the game,” said Terzic.
Apart from a certain stabilization of the defense, in the seven competitive games after the winter break there were only three goals conceded, the team is only making partial progress in its development. This certainly raises fears with regard to the most important goal of the season: Could it possibly not be enough for BVB to qualify for the Champions League at the end of the season? That would be a serious blow. Terzic promised to continue working flat out on the deficits.
However, Dortmund are confident about the second leg against Eindhoven on March 13th. “It’s currently half-time and we still have a great chance of making it to the quarter-finals. And that’s what we will do,” said Terzic. Sports director Sebastian Kehl even put it more precisely: “We can live with that point here. We will advance one round.”
