Fireworks only in the stands
Uninspired BVB drags itself into the round of 16
11/02/2022 10:57 p.m
In terms of sport, the last game of the Champions League group stage is meaningless for Borussia Dortmund, progress is already fixed. But instead of playing free in Copenhagen, BVB even trembled at times to win a point. It’s only hot in the stands.
Borussia Dortmund gave its marathon men a break and delivered the weakest performance of the Champions League season with a B-Elf. Without resting stars like Jude Bellingham, BVB drew 1-1 (1-1) at FC Copenhagen in the sportingly meaningless group final, which he only earned in the second half. The round of 16 as group runners-up was already certain before the kick-off.
Thorgan Hazard (23rd), who helped out again as a left-back, used a cross from Felix Passlack, who plays very rarely, to score the opening goal. Goalkeeper Gregor Kobel prevented further goals against the equalizer by Hakon Haraldsson (41st) with a few saves in the Parken stadium, then he also got a half-time rest. The point earned BVB a bonus of EUR 930,000. In the event of victory, it would have been 2.8 million.
In the three-day rhythm before the World Cup, the time for rotation had come: Stars like Bellingham, Youssoufa Moukoko and Julian Brandt got the break they had fought hard for on the hamster wheel of constant English weeks. Coach Edin Terzic didn’t use that as an excuse: “It doesn’t matter who plays what position: if we’re all at 100 percent, there’s a very high probability that we’ll win the game.” But his players were far from 100 percent performance.
Hummels folds teammates together
The Copenhagen fans were in high spirits even though the Danish champions had not scored in five group games and were bottom of the table. There was also singing in the away block: the organized BVB fan scene stayed away from the game to protest against restrictions on ticket allocation. There had been riots on the edge of the first leg.
The many changes at BVB quickly became noticeable, and the defense got big problems. Mats Hummels was turned in several times on the outside line, and Roony Bardghji would have headed the following cross into the corner of the goal – if Kobel hadn’t made a spectacular save (9′). Only then did Dortmund find their way into the game: Gio Reyna and Karim Adeyemi tried several times without success to use Donyell Malen. Hazard then scored.
The hosts stayed better. Reyna’s bad pass gave Copenhagen the first goal of the Champions League season. A little later, Hummels folded his teammates, things didn’t go well at all for the Dortmund B team, which continued to rotate. Niklas Süle replaced Hummels at the break, Alexander Meyer came on for Kobel.
From then on, BVB played more vigorously, but Malen overzealously took the ball from Anthony Modeste, who was ready to score and otherwise was in the air – it would have been the goal again (53′). After that, Brandt and Moukoko came on for half an hour, the first action of the two led to a Moukoko shot against the post (64th).