Dortmund wins in Seville: “Definitely the reaction we wanted to show”

EYoussoufa Moukoko did not score in goal in Dortmund’s clear 4-1 victory in Seville, he even had to listen to a few warning words from his coach: “It’s not enough that he plays like this once,” said Edin Terzic after an eventful one Football night about the young striker. And yet Moukoko could feel like a big winner when he went to bed sometime well after midnight.

The 17-year-old forward not only made the best Champions League game of his career, he has also shown his critics that he is evolving. Moukoko “moved very well in timing to compensate for this physical deficit that he has against a tall central defender,” explained Terzic, which is exactly what has been worked on in training for weeks.

Dangerous mistakes

In addition, the teenager was “involved in a lot of offensive actions”, which his often completely invisible colleague Anthony Modeste had never managed to do in the past few weeks. Almost incidentally, Moukoko had also prepared the 0: 3 and 1: 4, the chances are good that he pushed the permanently pale Modeste out of the starting XI that evening.

But that is only one story of this evening, which can be told from different perspectives. Once again, the Dortmund team offered the best entertainment in a wild football game with brilliant offensive actions. The team had scored four goals in the end, but there were also those moments that are so well known in Dortmund when dangerous mistakes were made that a really self-confident opponent would probably have used more consistently. The game had the potential to tip over just like the Bundesliga games against Bremen and in Cologne, which were lost after taking the lead.

The early Dortmund lead by Raphael Guerreiro (6th) was followed by a phase before half-time in which FC Sevilla became more and more dominant and had a number of chances, but BVB were lucky to have a strikingly strong goalkeeper Alexander Meyer and responded with goals from Jude Bellingham (41st) and Karim Adeyemi (43rd).

The situation at FC Sevilla, which is in a deep crisis and was completely unsorted on the defensive, probably also helped. Immediately after the final whistle, the club management fired coach Julen Lopetegui.

That elusive force, which is often described with the term “Momentum”, worked in BVB’s favor that evening. Because when Dortmund came under pressure again after the goal (Youssef En-Nesyri, 51.), the Spaniards missed good opportunities to score more goals.

“Hats off to the troops”

The brilliant goalkeeper Meyer saved difficult balls on several occasions, and the super-dominant midfielders Bellingham and Özcan strengthened the whole team with their willpower. Especially in this difficult phase, Moukoko was also particularly present. “Of course, the second half wasn’t as good as the first, but hats off to the squad,” said Julian Brandt, who finally headed the 1:4 after 75 minutes and broke the resistance of FC Sevilla. “That was definitely the reaction we wanted to show,” said Bellingham, who has now scored in all three group games of the Champions League so far.

Edin Terzic sounded a bit more reserved when he spoke of a “good step” by his team. The four goals could still be very important in a potentially relevant direct comparison with the Spaniards, said the coach, but he didn’t really want to celebrate his team. Apparently Terzic has learned that overly enthusiastic words do not have a good effect on his professionals. “We showed a good game in many phases,” he summed up, before immediately expressing his distrust: “Nevertheless, it’s about confirming things, that’s the big question, we can only show that, we don’t want to.” talk more about it.”

The annoyance at the points wasted due to inexplicable negligence in the title fight is still deep, especially before the duel with FC Bayern next Saturday (6.30 p.m., in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky) these points are very missing. He is looking forward to meeting the record champions, said Terzic, but: “It still hurts because the starting position could be different.”

In the Bundesliga summit on Saturday evening in Dortmund, two teams will meet, both of which are not really satisfied with their elimination in the national competition, but which are now inspired by the overall very positive sense of achievement from the Champions League.