Borussia Dortmund were the cause of their own demise as they threw away a 2-0 lead to lose 5-2 to Real Madrid at the Bernabeu
Dortmund were slow to get going in Madrid with the hosts having the majority of the ball but they suddenly turned the game on its head when Serhou Guirassy threaded the needle with a scooped pass to Donyell Malen to open the scoring for Dortmund with their first shot of the game. Malen would then turn provider several minutes later when his pass across the face of the goal was turned in at the back post by Jamie Gittens.
Madrid were unlucky in the first half as Vinicius Junior hit the crossbar before Jude Bellingham also hit the crossbar from the rebound.
The second half was a completely different story as Madrid turned their performance around. In the 60th minute, Antonio Rüdiger got one goal back for Madrid and then Dortmund began to collapse, the defensive substitutions from head coach Nuri Sahin did not help as Madrid took advantage of Dortmund throwing the game away. Vinicius would quickly equalise for Madrid soon after Rüdiger’s first.
Madrid would continue to get the better of Dortmund as die Schwarzgelben held on for their life for the draw, however, in the 83rd minute Lucas Vazquez would complete the comeback for Madrid. Two more late goals from Vinicius would complete his hat-trick and make it 5-2.
Dortmund’s great first half was overshadowed by how their crap second half was. The substitutions and formation change so early on in the second half were questionable and contributed to the decline. Jamie Gittens and Donyell Malen were the brightest players for Dortmund in the first half and were central to Dortmund’s positives in the first half, but both were brought off after Dortmund were never able to do anything on the attacking front as Guirassy was then left isolated.
Borussia Dortmund XI:
Gregor Kobel (5), Julian Ryerson (5), Niklas Süle (5), Nico Schlotterbeck (5), Ramy Bensebaini (5), Felix Nmecha (5), Marcel Sabitzer (5), Donyell Malen (7), Julian Brandt (6), Jamie Gittens (7), Serhou Guirassy (6)
Others: Waldemar Anton (5), Pascal Groß (5), Emre Can (4), Maximilian Beier (5)
GGFN | Jack Meenan
