Cosmos! The Borussia-Atletico match had everything

It was something amazing. After a crazy match, Borussia Dortmund won once morest Atletico Madrid 4-2 and advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League. Absolutely everything happened in this meeting.

Tomasz Galiński
April 16, 2024, 10:55 p.m

PAP/EPA / Christopher Neundorf / In the photo: Julian Brandt opened the scoring in the Borussia – Atletico match Over 80,000. fans at the Dortmund stadium now have every right to celebrate. Because Borussia played a phenomenal match once morest Atletico Madrid, made up for the loss and advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League in good style.

This match had absolutely everything. Dramaturgy? Like the best horror movies. Plot twists? Lots of. A level worthy of the rank of this show. No, this was a show that should have been on Broadway in New York.

After the first half, the whole of Dortmund was ecstatic. They managed to make up for the losses and there was no indication that Atletico might return. There were no guests. However, one corner kick and an accidental own goal were enough to bring them back to life. Atletico equalized and everything changed once more. And in the most difficult moment, Borussia scored two goals in three minutes and also had further opportunities. It was an unbelievable, dizzying 90 minutes.

Coach Diego Simeone may regret that he did not take a risk and play offensively from the very beginning, but wanted above all to survive and not concede a goal. And it ended with his team losing four.

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One counterattack at the beginning of the match, when Alvaro Morata was running towards the goal from almost half the field, lobbed Gregor Kobel in a one-on-one situation, but shot wide of the post. And that would be it. The guests limited themselves to defense and interference, which of course determined the result of the two-legged match.

This backfired because Borussia was becoming more and more dangerous minute by minute. Initially, this did not translate into specifics, but they finally arrived. The signal to attack was given by central defender Mats Hummels. He played “false” into the penalty area, a bit in the style of Luka Modric. He spotted Julian Brandt fantastically, who outplayed his opponent and surprised Jan Oblak with a strong shot, who might have done much better. Five minutes later it was 2-0. This time, Brandt started the action, then Marcel Sabitzer did a great job, and the rushing Ian Maatsen hit an indefensible shot at the far post.

But everything changed in the 49th minute, when Hummels unfortunately intervened in his own penalty area following a corner kick. He played a great competition and if it weren’t for this one situation, he would probably have received the highest score from Kicker. Meanwhile, he surprised Gregor Kobel and the next few minutes were very nervous. At one point, there was an attack on the BVB goal and substitute Angel Correa equalized in great confusion (Simeone’s triple substitution during the break revived Atletico’s play).

However, the hosts survived difficult moments and soon received a huge mental kick. Sabitzer crossed the ball at full speed, headed in by Niclas Fuellkrug and gave his team another lead in the match. And if that wasn’t enough, following three minutes, Sabitzer boomed loudly from several meters away and Oblak had to pull the ball out of the net for the fourth time. It was a knockout blow, because following it Atletico was unable to recover and seriously threaten Kobel’s goal.

Borussia Dortmund – Atletico Madrid 4:2 (2:0)
1:0 Julian Brandt 34′
2:0 Ian Maatsen 39′
2:1 Mats Hummels (s.) 49′
2:2 Angel Correa 64′
3:2 Niclas Fuellkrug 71′
4:2 Marcel Sabitzer 74′

Compositions:

Borussia: Gregor Kobel – Julian Ryerson, Mats Hummels, Nico Schlotterbeck, Ian Maatsen – Karim Adeyemi (66′ Jamie Bynoe-Gittens), Marcel Sabitzer, Emre Can, Julian Brandt (90′ Marco Reus), Jadon Sancho (86′ Salih Ozcan) – Niclas Fuellkrug.

Atletico: Jan Oblak – Nahuel Molina (46′ Pablo Barrios), Axel Witsel, Jose Maria Gimenez, Mario Hermoso, Cesar Azpilicueta (46′ Rodrigo Riquelme) – Marcos Llorente, Koke, Rodrigo De Paul (84′ Saul Niguez) – Alvaro Morata ( 46′ Angel Correa), Antoine Griezmann.

Yellow cards: Ryerson (Borussia) oraz Azpilicueta, Hermoso (Atletico).

Judge: Slavko Vincić (Slovenia).