UCL: Atletico Madrid Beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1 In First Leg

Jess Lee

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Atletico Madrid scraped a 2-1 win in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund.

With first-half goals from Rodrigo de Paul and Samuel Lino, the Spanish side had an advantage heading into the second leg.

Substitute Sebastian Haller supplied Dortmund with a late lifeline in the 80th minute, decreasing the goal deficit to just one ahead of their home tie.

The Match As It Happened

At kick-off, 70,000 fans at the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano sang in full voice, fuelled by an initial surge of energy. This sparked Atletico into an early high, pressing on Dortmund’s backline and quickly gaining ground in the attacking half.

Ian Maatsen, forced to retreat, played a poor pass across the edge of the box, which De Paul pounced upon.

Quickly after, the lacklustre ball was powered past Gregor Kobel on the half-volley, giving Atletico an early lead.

Atletico Madrid 1-0 Borussia Dortmund

Following unexpected early attacks from Atletico, Dortmund continued to scramble at the back.

A sea of red flooded forward in possession after a mix-up between centre-backs, Mats Hummels and Nico Schlotterbeck,

Then, Atletico’s top-assister, Antoine Griezmann, collected the ball inside the box and squared a scooped pass to Lino.

The Brazilian finished the move with a side-footed strike under Kobel into the bottom right corner of the net.

Atletico Madrid 2-0 Borussia Dortmund

“The German side returned a different team from the dressing room.”

At half-time, Dortmund found themselves dumbfounded away from home.

After little hesitation, manager Edin Terzić changed his team early into the second half. He introduced forward-thinking players: Julian Brandt, Sébastien Haller and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens into play.

With that, the German side returned a different team from the dressing room, claiming more possession and goal attempts.

As Brandt held the frontline, the pressure on Dortmund’s defence decreased as he provided an outlet for the ball.

After much persistence in attack, Brandt and Haller finally linked up to claw a goal back for Dortmund in the 80th minute.

Haller took the ball on the spin from Brandt’s defence-splitting pass and buried his shot into the back of the net. This resulted in Atletico’s six successive clean sheet at home in all UCL quarter-final matches ending.

In a thrilling final ten minutes, Dortmund pressed for an equaliser to bring back to Signal Iduna Park.

In this time, Bynoe-Gittens unleashed a long-range effort that deflected off César Azpilicueta awkwardly and rattled the crossbar.

An unmarked Brandt inside the six-yard box soon made a powerful header on the end of a Julian Ryerson cross. It crashed against the woodwork, much to Dortmund’s dismay.

Marco Guida concluded the game by blowing the full-time whistle; with Atletico holding onto the win.

Managers’ Reactions

Atletico manager Diego Simeone was satisfied with his side’s performance but remained aware of the challenges that could present themselves away from home. “[We played] with good pressure, we stole the ball, we forced the opposing team almost in the first half not to have goal situations in the game.

“Now we’ll go to their stadium knowing that we’re going to find a strong team, a team with a lot of people who are going to take it to us, to attack, we will have to suffer and take advantage of the space,” Simeone said.

Terzić was pleased with the way his team responded from being 2-0 behind: “We made too many mistakes, but more important to me is the reaction we showed.

“In the end, a draw wouldn’t have been undeserved. Now we look forward to seeing what’s coming in six days.”

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