At the end of a completely crazy match, Borussia Dortmund qualified for the semi-finals of the Champions League, winning 4-2 against Atlético Madrid, to climb for the first time since 2013 in the last square of the C1.
Published on: 04/16/2024 – 23:13
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The euphoria in the first half, the disillusionment at the start of the second act and the madness for two and a half minutes: the 81,365 spectators at the Westfalenstadion went through all the emotions on Tuesday evening.
The oldest among them must have remembered the quarter-final in 2013 against Malaga during which Dortmund snatched their place in the last four thanks to two goals in added time from Marco Reus, again present on Wednesday, and Felipe Santana .
To follow in the footsteps of Jürgen Klopp’s men, finalists at Wembley in 2013 against Bayern Munich (2-1 defeat), Edin Terzic’s players will face Paris SG in the semi-finals at the beginning of May, who defeated FC Barcelona in the quarter-finals. of final. The first leg will be played in Germany, the return a week later at the Parc des Princes.
Coming out first in an extremely tough group with Paris SG, AC Milan and Newcastle, Borussia Dortmund thus continues an extraordinary European journey, eliminating Antoine Griezmann’s Atlético Madrid, after a demonstration in the first period.
The Yellow and Blacks, deprived of their first-leg scorer Sébastien Haller, were forced to come back a goal behind after big defensive errors in Madrid from Ian Maatsen and the defensive duo Mats Hummels/Nico Schlotterbeck.
Emre Can’s teammates were the first to be dangerous in front of Jan Oblak’s goal in the 3rd minute. On a pass from Julian Brandt, Karim Adeyemi managed to serve Marcel Sabitzer alone from seven meters, but the Austrian international controlled the ball and allowed the last-minute return of César Azpilicueta.
150 seconds of madness
Alvazo Morata, launched deep and faster than Sabitzer, had the opportunity two minutes later to cool the atmosphere in Dortmund but missed his spiked ball against Gregor Kobel.
Atlético ceded the ball to Borussia Dortmund, relying on Oblak’s saves. But the Slovenian goalkeeper was unable to do anything shortly after the half-hour mark on a strong shot from Brandt, ideally served on a perfect pass from the outside of Hummels’ foot.
The 2014 world champion thus made up for his mistake in the first leg, just like Maatsen, who scored Dortmund’s second goal just five minutes after the opening score, with BVB insisting on the right side of the defense of Madrid in difficulty.
Following a beautiful backheel from Sabitzer, Maatsen found himself alone and perfectly crossed his left shot to free the Westfalenstadion.
The return from the locker room turned into a disaster for Dortmund, put under pressure by the three changes of Diego Simeone (Riquelme, Angel Correa and Pablo Barrios). On a corner taken without power from Mario Hermoso, Hummels wrong-footed his goalkeeper and revived the Madrilenians.
A quarter of an hour later, while Atlético regained control of the match, Correa logically equalized, a goal which allowed his team to regain qualification.
But on a cross from Sabitzer in the 71st minute, Niclas Füllkrug catapulted the ball into Oblak’s goal with the help of the post to put Dortmund back in the direction of the game.
Less than 150 seconds later, Sabitzer gave a completely crazy turn to the match, to put Dortmund in front in the aggregate of the two matches.
Omnipresent, the former Bayern Munich player was very close to killing all suspense at the start of the last five minutes, but Oblak repelled his attempt from 25 meters with a superb save.
With AFP
