First stifling then too much in the management, Atlético Madrid scared itself but dominated Borussia Dortmund (2-1) on Wednesday at the Metropolitano in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League, taking a slight advantage in sight of the return match in Germany.
Published on: 04/10/2024 – 11:26 p.m.
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A victory by one goal which can weigh heavily in the race for the semi-finals of the Champions League. First stifling then too much in management, Atlético Madrid scared itself but dominated Borussia Dortmund (2-1) at home in the quarter-final first leg on Wednesday April 10.
The meeting was played with reinforced security following threats from the Islamic State organization, without any incident being reported, as during Tuesday’s clash between Real Madrid and Manchester City.
After their exploit in the quarters against Inter, finalist last year (2-1, qualification on penalties), the Colchoneros did the job by transforming this clash between outsiders into a one-sided match for a long time, until to the late reduction of the gap by Sébastien Haller (81st).
Pushed by their supporters in a fiery atmosphere, warmed by a few smoke bombs cracked during their arrival, Diego Simeone’s men were once again able to sublimate themselves at home, where they have suffered only one defeat for more than a year.
Quite the opposite of Borussia, yet capable this season of standing up to PSG and AC Milan or beating Bayern Munich, but who was unable to respond to the intensity imposed by Antoine Griezmann and his teammates and completely missed his start to the match.
Griezmann in the oven and in the mill
The Rojiblancos took the advantage in the 4th minute of play, when the Argentine world champion Rodrigo de Paul opened the scoring with the tip of his right foot after intercepting a poorly assured pass by the Dutch full-back Ian Maatsen (1-0) .
Rewarded for its high pressing, Atlético then completely stifled a German team quickly cornered in its camp and totally dominated in the physical impact.
The match could have turned into a demonstration, Swiss goalkeeper Gregor Kobel preventing Axel Witsel from doubling the lead on a cross from Griezmann (7th).
Again in all the good moves, the French striker, back from his ankle injury, took full advantage of a new disagreement from the German defense to offer the ball for 2-0 to his Brazilian friend Samuel Lino, who explodes the Metropolitano (32nd).
Haller maintains hope for Borussia
But with this two-goal advantage, which would not have been too much against the yellow wall of Dortmund in the return match, Atlético relaxed and left opportunities, fortunately not converted, to Adeyemi (36th), Maatsen (43rd) and Sancho (43rd) to come back to score.
Much more dangerous in the second half, thanks in particular to the entries of Julian Brandt and Sébastien Haller, Borussia fell on a still imperial Jan Oblak in the Madrid goals, before his efforts were rewarded.
The 2024 African champion Sébastien Haller, in fact, ended up reducing the gap in the pivot, to give hope to the Germans (82nd, 2-1), who almost equalized at the last second on a header from Brandt which hit the crossbar (90th+6).
On a slippery free kick from Griezmann, the Brazilian Samuel Lino had previously come close to scoring a double which would have crowned an XXL performance and restored two goals to Atléti, but Kobel kept his team alive (75th) .
The hardest part therefore remains to be done next Wednesday at the Westfalenstadion for the Spaniards, who are having great difficulties away.
With AFP
