In the end, Borussia Dortmund and Atlético Madrid’s Champions League clash on Wednesday was a complete and utter rout. It wasn’t always destined to be such however.
Dortmund, playing at home, scored three goals in the second half to settle what felt destined to be, up until the final 20 minutes of the match, like a barnstorming Atlético comeback.
Not a lot can really happen in 90 minutes, even in a high-incident game like soccer. Generally the ebbs and flows express themselves relatively slowly. A team might dominate one half only to lose the thread in the next. Maybe you go down 2-0, but a red card or an injury or a substitution turns the balance just enough to come out with a win.
Wednesday’s match rose and fell less like a tide and more like a storm surge.
A contest that began evenly enough, with both teams feeling each other out in the opening thirty minutes, seemed like it might be the recipe for a draw. Neither team necessarily needed to win this match, after all.
Both Dortmund and Atlético claimed the full six points available from prior matches against AS Monaco and Club Bruges. A win at Signul Iduna Park would certainly help, but it wasn’t as if either team was in danger of dropping out of Group A’s top half.
If it was to be a draw, then at least it would be a pretty one. Atlético coach Diego Simeone has crafted one of the best defenses in modern European soccer history, and they were playing away from home against a Dortmund attack that has proven especially potent of late. They would sit deep, attack on the counter with the likes of Antoine Griezmann and Saúl Ñíguez, and exert the same passive control on the game as they always do.
Dortmund likely had more to worry about. Though they are flying high in the Bundesliga over the last month, and currently sit undefeated at the top of the table, this team is still very much a work-in-progess for new coach Lucien Favre.
Case in point: the four man back-line Favre named to hold Griezmann, et al at bay possessed two 19-year-olds, one 22-year-old and a 33-year-old veteran in the form of right-back Lukasz Piszczek. Compared to Atléti’s storied old guard, this was hardly a cohesive defensive unit.
Yet they held their own throughout the match. They were helped by a stout two-way effort in midfield, most notably from Axel Witsel. The Belgian provided exceptional cover for the young centre-back duo behind him, and even scored the opening goal of the match just before half-time thanks to a fortunate deflection.
That goal didn’t feel like part of the script, and Atlético immediately went about attempting to correct this aberration. Straight from the whistle in the second half, they harried and pestered and closed down every attempt Dortmund made to get out of their own half. Simeone’s side adjusted their defensive shell to emphasize a frenzied press, one that worked supremely well against a Dortmund side often cited as the innovators of the modern pressing game.
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From minute 45 to minute 70, Atlético stayed camped right on the edges of Dortmund’s penalty area. Dortmund full-backs Piszczek and on-loan Real Madrid youngster Achraf Hakimi left open acres of space for Atlético veterans Juanfruan and Felipe Luís to run into, while Ñíguez and Thomas Lemar chewed through their host’s previously impermeable midfield.
Credit is owed to Dortmund centre-backs Dan-Axel Zagadou and Abdou Diallo for keeping Atlético’s shot-count minimal during this onslaught, though a fair share must also be given to the deeply out of form Diego Costa. The former Chelsea striker has scored just one in over 800 minutes of play in La Liga and the Champions League so far this season.
Ñíguez came close twice for Atléti, including a long-range shot that his Roman Bürki’s post. Dortmund clung to their one goal lead however, and they still had another twist to come.
The story of Dortmund’s success thus far this season is told from their bench. In the four consecutive wins in all competitions prior to Wednesday’s clash with Atlético, Dortmund had scored 15 goals. Eight of those goals came from substitutes.
Favre might have been less confident in his bench this go round however. Paco Alcácer scored five of those eight goals off the bench, and he was left out of the 18 on Wednesday for unclear reasons. If Atlético scored, as seemed inevitable, it was by no means certain that Dortmund would find a way back.
As it happened though, other names stepped up from off the bench. Raphaël Guerreiro has yet to earn a full start this season as he recovers from injuries that kept him out of Dortmund starting XIs for much of last season. It took him ten minutes on Wednesday to double Dortmund’s lead after being brought in during the 63rd minute.
After a botched bit of play between him and Marco Reus moments before, Hakimi surged into Atlético’s penalty area and set up Guerreiro for his first goal for Dortmund since November of 2017.
Moments later, it was against Hakimi who found himself unmarked in Atlético’s area, this time thanks to an utterly superb pass from Mario Götze. Manchester City academy product Jadon Sancho — another substitute — benefited from Hakimi’s assist to triple Dortmund’s advantage and effectively end the match. Guerreiro would go on to seal the deal in the 89th minute thanks to a misplaced pass from Luís.
In less than twenty minutes, Dortmund’s bench twisted a once-mostly-even contest tipping toward a Atlético comeback into a thorough drubbing of the away side. It is a lot of story to fit into 90 minutes, but this Favre experiment continues to find ways to surprise.