Et will be small consolation for the many young Borussia Dortmund players that they will at least bring back memories from London of a very atmospheric evening of football in one of the legendary English football stadiums. And maybe they will eventually benefit from the experience they gained that night, but they didn’t have a real chance of reaching the quarter-finals during the 2-0 defeat at Chelsea. And that was less due to the superiority of the opponent than to BVB’s own performance.
The evening had already gotten off to an unfortunate start for the BVB delegation, who were stuck on a temporarily closed road for 20 minutes on the way to the stadium, which led to the kick-off being postponed by ten minutes. And when the game went on, a real shock followed immediately: three minutes had been played when Julian Brandt lay down in midfield, grabbed the back of his right thigh and had to be substituted. The Dortmunders have probably lost their most reliable and in-form player of the season so far for an indefinite period of time. Giovanni Reyna came on for Brandt and perhaps this misfortune contributed to the English quickly developing an overwhelming advantage.
Edin Terzic’s men were pinned down in their own half for the first ten minutes and Kai Havertz had a great chance for the Londoners, but shot over the goal from a good position (8′). Eventually, BVB began to act a little more clearly, and after 16 minutes Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga had to steer a great free-kick from Marco Reus off the line. But this short period of recovery was quickly over. If too many important players are absent, then this team tends to fall back into old patterns of failure.
At Stamford Bridge, Raphael Guerreiro replaced the suspended Julian Ryerson on the left in the back four, which, especially compared to the 1-0 win in the first leg, resulted in a shift away from physical strength and dynamism towards a little less robustness and more footballing class. In the first duel between the two clubs, the first-leg goal scorer Karim Adeyemi, who was still injured in the thigh, played in his position, and captain Marco Reus was now used on the left wing. Goalkeeper Gregor Kobel was also absent, just like last weekend in the Bundesliga.
Too many of the players who had brought that impressive energy to Dortmund’s game, which has often been described as a new mentality, were no longer there: Kobel, Ryerson, Adeyemi, Brandt. “We’re fighting back more, we’re ready to suffer, we’re fighting without end,” Sebastian Kehl had said a few days before the trip to London, but there was little to be seen of that now.
First of all, BVB was very lucky twice when Havertz only hit the inside post (28) and a goal by Joao Felix didn’t count (38) due to a narrow offside position in the creation of the goal. But it would have been a small miracle if Dortmund’s lucky streak had continued forever; the opening goal for the Londoners just before the break was well deserved. After a cross from Ben Chilwell into the penalty area, Raheem Sterling won a duel against Reus and scored the overdue 1-0 (44th).
Congratulations from the captain: Kai Havertz (left) converted the penalty in the second attempt
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Image: EPA
Not only was the lead in the first leg gone, Dortmund’s careless performance had strengthened the troubled English, whose uncertainty was actually evident in many moments. Chelsea are having a poor season in the domestic league, scoring a shockingly low number of goals.
That evening, it helped them that the lucky streak that BVB had been in for the past few weeks broke in the second half: First, after the intervention of the video assistant and viewing the TV images, the Dutch referee imposed a controversial hand penalty, which Havertz also did missed. However, because several Dortmunders ran into the penalty area too early, the penalty was repeated, this time the former Leverkusen player (53rd) scored to make it 2-0.
Now Dortmund had to risk a little more, which gave Bellingham a good chance, but he didn’t hit the ball cleanly (58′). But overall, the Bundesliga team remained too harmless offensively. Not only did Dortmund lose a game for the first time in 2023, it also caused the first irreparable damage to the season project. The European Cup dreams have been dashed, but at least they have made it into the top 16 clubs on the continent, which is always mentioned as the minimum goal in summer. And maybe they will even see the free training weeks in spring as an advantage when it comes to the title in the Bundesliga, where – in contrast to the Champions League, which is dominated by the real giants of club football – the really big coup could actually be realizable.