Footballers from Westphalia don’t hear fado. Not even when something painful happens to them in Lisbon. The players from Borussia Dortmund found reason to cry themselves to sleep to Portuguese Weltschmerz music on Wednesday night. A 1: 3 (0: 2) defeat at Sporting Lisbon meant in the penultimate group game of the Champions League that BVB did not make it into the round of 16 of the continental championship for the first time since 2017.
Dortmund, which has lost the direct comparison with Sporting and can no longer achieve second place in the group, must continue to play in the Europa League. Without the exceptional striker Erling Haaland (injured), without the defense chief Mats Hummels (red barrier), without the winger Thorgan Hazard (Corona), the Westphalians messed up their ultimate test in the atmospheric Estadio José Alvalade. The Portuguese whistled on their fado. They cheered the move into the last sixteen.
It has been three months since the BVB managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke said after the group draw: “We cannot complain, we have a decent chance of making it to the round of 16.” BVB, third in the Bundesliga last season, had drawn the champions of the Dutch, Portuguese and Turkish leagues in Ajax, Sporting and Besiktas, but the three nations only ranked in the five-year ranking of the European football leagues seven, six and 18. If you avoid one of the big four – England, Spain, Italy, France – in the group stage, the chances of reaching the round of 16 are actually good.
BVB missed at least ten million euros due to the early exit
For the new Dortmund coach Marco Rose, this means a deep scratch in the paintwork. In the Bundesliga, the team is in second place, just one point behind Dominator Bayern Munich, but Dortmund’s performances have so far rarely been intoxicating and even gave rise to internal criticism. In the lucrative Champions League of all places, BVB has now received the receipt for its often half-baked game due to latent injury problems. The club will lose at least ten million euros as a result of the transfer. “That was a shitty evening. We’re out, that’s the bitter truth,” said Marco Reus at DAZN.
With Marin Pongracic for Hummels in central defense, Donyell Malen for Haaland in the lead and the 19-year-old loaner Reinier from Real Madrid instead of Hazard, the Dortmund team went into the game. There was another blow to the neck shortly before kick-off: Because the technically skilled and aggressively dangerous left-back Raphael Guerreiro injured himself while warming up, he had to be replaced by Nico Schulz.
And then it was Schulz who made the fatal mistake before the 0: 1 in the 30th minute. He held his leg in a very long ball from the Portuguese half. The ball bounced unluckily from his foot straight into the barrel of Sporting striker Pedro Goncalves. The 23-year-old pushed the ball past goalkeeper Gregor Kobel into the net and only nine minutes later proved his ability to shoot again.
Malen’s consolation hit comes much too late
In the 39th minute, Pedro Goncalves was lurking at the edge of the penalty area in Dortmund and after a rebound from the BVB defense he aimed so precisely that he circled the ball with his inner instep around the defender Axel Witsel and chased it past the fast flying Kobel into the net . So the Borussia were already in great need at the break.
They therefore had to play a high risk in the second half, went uncompromisingly on the ball and now played passably forward. In the 74th minute, Emre Can, who was only substituted in the second half, saw the red card for alleged assault. As before in the 1: 3 against Ajax, Dortmund ended up being outnumbered. A foul penalty caused by Dan-Axel Zagadou meant the 0: 3 in the 81st minute. Kobel parried Goncalves’ shot, but Pedro Porro headed the rebound. The Dortmunders were spared nothing. Malen only managed to hit the consolation goal in stoppage time (90 + 3.).