Photo Credit: UEFA
After a Drizzling night in Germany, Borussia Dortmund are within arm’s length of the Champion’s League final after winning 1-0 against Paris Saint German. As usual, the fans in yellow turned up in large numbers to support their team making up the yellow wall of Dortmund.
The Parisiens were at an advantage in terms of speed with Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and Achraf Hakimi all giving the Dortmund defense a run for their money. Literally. This forced the German giants forced back and even winger Karim Adeyemi majorly participating in defending.
Dortmund now had to rely on counter-attacking and laying out long-balls to the attack hoping they won’t be intercepted. An early effort by Marcel Sabitzer was seen thwarted by the Paris Saint German goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. In the 36th minute, we saw defender, Nico Schlotterbeck pick out his teammate Niclas Fullkrug with a pitch perfect long ball.
The attacker wasn’t ruled for offside as he was hand to hand with his marker when the defense splitting ball was released. The attacker wasted no chance as he controlled the high-speed ball majestically and crowned up the magnificent move with a cool finish. 1-0 the score.
The hosts came close to doubling their lead but Marcel Sabitzer’s effort was parried away by the busy Donnarumma. After the break, the visitors were eager to get back into level terms. In the early stages of the second half, PSG pulled out all the stops but it was just not their night. It saw both Achraf Hakimi and Kylian Mbappe being denied by the woodwork in quick succession.
Frustration started to set in as Fabian Ruiz missed a golden opportunity to equalize after failing to head it home from the six-yard box. The ball now could not rest as it moved end to end with the players not letting up on momentum. At both sides, the goalkeepers worked tirelessly as goal bound strikes were all directed towards them.
All in all after a thrilling contest, Dortmund managed to hold firm and take a slender lead of 1-0. All is to be speculated in the next week in the return leg in Paris.
