Borussia Dortmund 0-0 Club Brugge
Borussia Dortmund continued its great start to the season by reaching the Champions League knockout phase with a goalless draw against Brugge.
With the big news in Dortmund this week covering the 14-year sentence handed out to the BVB bus bomber, it was great to get back to football at the Signal Iduna Park. And while the Yellow Wall didn’t have a goal to cheer, it didn’t matter one jot as the Bundesliga leaders qualified with a game to spare.
The Group A Champions League 2018 results meant the hosts needed just a point to guarantee their passage through to the last 16. And, in all honesty, they went through without any real scares against a team which needed to win.
It wasn’t a classic to watch for SBOBET Champions League fans, but Dortmund have shown it can grind out a result as well as winning in the swashbuckling style the home fans have come to love.
Highlights of the game
As expected, BVB made most of the running throughout the game and started strongly in the first half as Raphael Guerreiro put Axel Witsel in for the first shot on goal, though to no avail.
Marco Reus also combined well with Christian Pulisic, but the wide man’s attempt was easily saved by Ethan Horvath.
Witsel had another shot blocked, but as the half reached the midway point, the visitors started to find their feet.
Brugge head coach Ivan Leko slammed his team for its worst performance of the season in a 1-3 home defeat to Zulta Waregem last weekend, and he demanded a positive response. Emmanuel Bonaventure Dennis had a shot blocked, Sofyan Amrabat missed with his effort and Benoit Poulain planted a header high and wide as the visitors opened up.
Guerreiro came close for BVB when Abdou Diallo found him with a neat cross, but the Brugge defence again managed to scramble the ball away.
Paco Alcacer has recently joined BVB permanently, and he made the difference after coming in as a sub in the recent win over Mainz. Spearheading the BVB attack, the former Barcelona man had a quiet first half and his frustration showed on the stroke of halftime when he was booked for an unnecessary foul on Amrabat.
Favre’s halftime talk prompted a fast start to the second half, as Alcacer immediately had his first attempt on target which Horvath clutched safely. Then Diallo’s close-range header was high and wide from a Pulisic corner.
Pulisic almost put Marco Reus clean through on goal, but the skipper was narrowly offside. As Brugge began to see their Champions League campaign coming to an end, Bonaventure Dennis came close with an effort on goal.
The Dortmund coach brought on England wonder kid Jadon Sancho to try to spark something. He put Alcacer in but the striker blasted high and wide.
And that was about it. Job done.
Key statistics
The pre-match Champions League 2018 odds pointed clearly to a comfortable home win: the hosts are on a three-match winning run and riding high at the top of the Bundesliga, while Brugge had just suffered back-to-back defeats in the Belgian first division.
Favre’s team only needed a point from this game, but they gave it a good go without finding the cutting edge their fans have come to expect. The first half was frustrating for the hosts as they enjoyed 75 percent possession but only managed a single shot on target. And that pattern continued almost exactly as they finished with 74 perent and two shots on target. Two more than the visitors!
Brugge aren’t a team in great form, but they desperately needed a win. They just didn’t look like they believed they could get it.
What’s next?
It’s back to domestic matters now, and BVB welcome SC Freiburg to the Signal Iduna Park this weekend. The hosts should preserve their four-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga against a team with only one win in six.
The mid-table outfit can be stubborn though, having drawn four of those six games. And Favre needs to make sure his boys don’t buckle under the pressure of being the new title favourites.
Standard Liege are the visitors to Brugge at the weekend as Leko’s team aims to get back to winning ways. The visitors are sixth but haven’t won in three, so Brugge should go into that game with high hopes.
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