When Dortmund’s third wave of cheers had subsided at a late hour in Paris’ Prinzenpark and the football heroes of Borussia Dortmund had retreated into the interior of the stadium in the west of the French capital, the inevitable question came about the dream opponent for the final. On June 1st, the ball game club Borussia 09 (BVB) will play for the Champions League title after two 1-0 wins in the semi-finals against Paris Saint-Germain at Wembley Stadium in London.
But against whom? This Wednesday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Champions League and on DAZN) Real Madrid meets FC Bayern. After the 2-2 draw in the first leg in Munich, the duel between the heavyweights of European football is completely open. So will BVB face the record winner from Spain? Or will there be another duel with the German opponent, who won the 2013 final at the same venue 2-1? And what would Dortmunders prefer?
Coach Edin Terzić didn’t want to commit. “Today we are the favorites,” he began the answer. “From tomorrow no more – no matter who it’s against. We know it will be extremely difficult. But in a game anything is possible. We proved that,” he said after the coup in Paris, in which his Dortmund team won again 1-0 thanks to Mats Hummels’ header (50th minute). In the first leg it was Niclas Füllkrug who scored Borussia’s only goal.
Julian Brandt kicked the corner for Hummel’s goal. He also didn’t want to commit at first because he “actually didn’t care” who Dortmund’s opponents would be. “But I’m also a bit patriotic and I’m already keeping my fingers crossed for Bayern.” Sports director Sebastian Kehl became clearer later in the evening in Paris: “I would like Bayern because I have the feeling that I still have unfinished business. Maybe we can pay off some of the 2013 debt.”
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The final eleven years ago has not been forgotten in Dortmund. It was the height of the rivalry with FC Bayern. Jürgen Klopp had not only turned Borussia into a serious national competitor, who had really annoyed Munich in 2011 with the championship title and in 2012 with the championship title and cup victory; Even in the fight for the premier class trophy, the football world was amazed at the black and yellow challenger, who narrowly came away empty-handed at Wembley.
Dortmund weren’t the worse team at the time, but lost with a late goal from Arjen Robben after Mario Mandžukić scored for Bayern and İlkay Gündoğan for BVB. Kehl saw the drama from the substitutes’ bench, and on Wednesday he sits on the couch when Real and Bayern play. “I would like nothing more than to play this final again. “That would be great for the Bundesliga, for Germany and also for the clubs,” he said.
But most Dortmunders didn’t want to take a closer look at the final and the second semi-final on the night of their triumph. They were too enthusiastic about their own work, which they had previously created in the 16th arrondissement of Paris less with art than with work. “This is just pure joy and a lot of pride,” said Terzić on Prime Video. “It will take a while to realize this, but we are extremely happy. The pictures from the curve, that’s why we do it.”
Before the final climax, Dortmund’s narrative of this campaign in the Champions League is already a special one. “We grew with every game,” said Terzić. “At some point we beat Milan (5th matchday of the group phase/editors), and if you beat last year’s semi-finalists, then you can make it.” There is “always a team that surprisingly makes it to the quarter-finals or semi-finals creates, and we wanted to be that team.”
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The coach and his team first reflected specifically on their dream destination of Wembley at the start of the knockout round with the first leg of the round of 16 in February: “We talked about it for the first time before the game in Eindhoven, and the faces were a bit surprised at how short it was “The way to London is,” Terzić recalled three months ago. He actually leads the black and yellow caravan back to the English capital via Eindhoven, Madrid (Atlético) and Paris.
Marco Reus was already there in 2013 – and left as a loser. A few days ago he announced his departure from Dortmund at the end of the season. This was linked to the dream of the final, and now the wish has come true. “Indescribable. What a week for me personally,” said Reus, who came into the game in the second half in Paris. “It’s crazy that we’re in the final again. Nobody expected that. Today it was clear that we had to suffer and we needed happiness.”
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Dortmund actually had that. Paris hit the post or crossbar six times in the home and away games. The old football adage that small things often decide big games has rarely been as true as in this semi-final. For Reus, the circumstances surrounding his progression didn’t matter. “Tomorrow no one will ask how. It just says the name Borussia Dortmund,” he said. But the thirty-four-year-old is not yet at the end of his dreams by making it to the final: “Now we have to get it – otherwise it would be shit.”
The final at Wembley 2013 may not be a good omen for this project. Things look better with a look back at BVB’s only triumph so far in the Champions League in 1997. Even back then, Ottmar Hitzfeld’s team were considered underdogs, but they also beat Manchester United 1-0 twice in the semi-finals. In the final in Munich, Juventus Turin was the big favorite. But Dortmund took the pot with them at 3-1.