Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Borussia Dortmund Drop Madrid, Headed to Wembley


4-3 

Real Madrid were facing a three goal deficit for the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Borussia Dortmund following the stellar performance of striker Lewandowski.  Playing the second leg in Spain, Dortmund knew they did not have to be as good as they were a week ago in front of their fans, as the pressure was on Madrid to score.

Higuaín was again selected over Benzema to start for Madrid as the center forward and had a great opportunity to carve into the lead with an early goal.  Keeper Weidenfeller made a good save to deny the forward and his day did not improve after that.  Ronaldo and Özil also had very good chances early, but another big save from the keeper as well as a bad miss kept Dortmund sitting comfortably in front.

In the second-half Benzema replaced Higuaín and Kaka replaced Coentrão as the urgency to score increased.  Benzema was a positive change and gave hope to Madrid in the last the moments of the match.  Kaka played Özil into space wide right and he was able to pass to Benzema crashing the near-post for the first goal of the match (82').  Then the light at the end of the tunnel got a little bit brighter when Madrid scored again minutes later.  Benzema controlled a loose ball at the Dortmund end-line and picked out Sergio Ramos waiting at the six yard line.  Ramos used one touch to settle the ball before blasting the shot into the top netting (88').

Unfortunately for Real Madrid the scoring came too little too late and Borussia Dortmund held on for the final 4-3 aggregate score.  Dortmund will have to wait until the end of tomorrow's semi-final replay to know who they will face in London, though the odds are certainly in favor of Bayern Munich.  Dortmund may have to play without their central midfielder Mario Götze who left today's game early with an injury.  He is set to join Bayern Munich next season, but Dortmund need him to play now while they still have him.

No comments:

Post a Comment