After a mediocre first half, Borussia Dortmund turned things around in their Champions League match against FC Villarreal. Guirassy scored twice, Adeyemi and Svensson also scored.
The souls of Borussia Dortmund supporters are calm again for now. With a lot of luck, BVB took an important step towards the knockout phase after three consecutive competitive matches without a win in the Champions League. Coach Niko Kovac’s side won 4-0 (1-0) against FC Villarreal on Tuesday after a weak first half – but the tally was too high against visitors who only had ten players playing for long periods.
Serhou Guirassy ended his goal drought with a brace (45+2/54), and Karim Adeyemi was also on target again (58) after the fuss surrounding a penalty notice for possession of an illegal weapon. Daniel Svensson scored Dortmund’s fourth goal (90+5). Villarreal’s Juan Foyth was shown a red card for a deliberate handball on the goal line – a tough call. BVB also had a lot of luck with their first three goals against the third team in the Primera Division.
With ten points from five matches, Dortmund increases their chances of directly qualifying for the round of 16. In contrast, Villarreal has still never won in the premier class of European football.
Average performance is enough for BVB
Before the double duel with former champions Bayer Leverkusen in the league (Saturday) and in the DFB Cup (Tuesday), Kovac rotated five times – once out of necessity as striker Maximilian Beier was unable to play. Among others, national striker Adeyemi was included in the starting Eleven. The BVB coach justified the personnel changes on Amazon Prime with “freshness”: “We played at home today. We wanted to win the game.”
Controversial decision in favor of Dortmund
Just before a tired kick went into the break, BVB took the lead through chance and luck. After poking in the penalty area, Guirassy pushed the ball over the line with his head. The previous season’s Champions League top scorer, who has struggled in recent weeks, scored for the first time in all of November. The goal was checked because the ball had previously hit Waldemar Anton’s hand, but it was classified as accidental.
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With a lot of luck, things continued after the break. Adeyemi completed a promising counter-attack with a shot on target which bounced off Foyth’s shoulder on the goal line. Italian referee Davide Massa still gave a hand penalty, even doing so after studying the video images and then issued a red card to the Argentinian player who also jumped towards the ball. Guirassy only made it 2-0 with a follow-up shot; Villarreal goalkeeper Luiz Junior has saved penalties before.
Moments later, against just ten guests, Adeyemi inadvertently made it 3-0. The 23 year old player was shot by Thomas Partey. Substitute Fábio Silva initially squandered a good chance to make things clear with a penalty in stoppage time (82′). Svensson then succeeded.
“The red card was good for us,” Dortmund international Nico Schlotterbeck said on Amazon Prime after the match. The defender saw a significant improvement in performance: “The second half was very good. Just as we expected.”
jb/dpa
