On Wednesday evening, Borussia Dortmund stumbled to a 2-1 defeat away to Atlético de Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final encounter.
A mistake-ridden opening half hour left BvB 2-0 down, as the tie already appeared to be a lost cause. However, after regrouping, Dortmund came out strong in the second half, and a late goal from substitute Sébastien Haller has given Edin Terzić’s side hope heading into the second leg at the Westfalenstadion next Tuesday.
Nevertheless, it could have been far greater for BvB, as in the final exchanges of the game, Julian Brandt struck the crossbar in what would have been a remarkable result for BvB. Regardless, if they are to reach the semi-finals, they will need to find inspiration and come from behind to beat the Spanish side.
Speaking to DAZN after the game, Terzić explained his frustration with how the first leg played out: “Of course we had completely different ideas coming into the game. The first 30 minutes just weren’t good enough. If you make so many mistakes at this level, then it’s over immediately. You have that, but we didn’t accept it. In the second half, you could clearly see what we are capable of. Now it’s about taking positive things from the second half.”
The BvB head coach then commented on BvB’s positive second-half display: “We explicitly pointed out what was going to happen here. They are waiting for mistakes, and we gave them far too many mistakes. We gave them the opportunity twice to simply get in front of our goal. And they took advantage of that coldly. We also have a lot of boys who are in the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time at this level. We are aware of that, but the reaction was much more important. The goal was, at half-time, that we put the focus on the second half and win the second half. I think we still deserved to equalize.”
Terzić then remarked on what it means for Dortmund to play for a spot in the semi-finals: “We felt a lot today. We felt what they wanted, and we felt how it works if we stay clear and don’t let ourselves get out of rhythm. If we do that now, if we can keep it going for over 90 minutes and even over 120 minutes, then it will be very exciting in Dortmund next week.”
With the Yellow Wall behind them next week, there is no doubt Dortmund can turn this tie on its head. However, they cannot lose focus like they did on Wednesday and offer Atlético the tie on a plate.
GGFN | Will Shopland
