Marcel Sabitzer fires German side into Champions League semi-finals as Diego Simeone's men are edged out in thrilling tie
2023/2024 UEFA Champions League
4-2
Match Events
0' The match is about to start!
5' CLOSE! Morata misses a golden chance!
5' Unbelievable! What a miss from Sabitizer!
20' Adeyemi’s shot saved by Oblak!
30' Yellow Card! Azpilicueta booked
34' GOAL! Dortmund 1-0 Atletico (Brandt)
39' GOAL! Dortmund 2-0 Atletico (Maatsen)
43' Yellow Card! Julian Ryerson booked
49' OWN GOAL! Dortmund 2-1 Atletico (Hummels)
59' Correa nearly scores for Aletico!
64' GOAL! Dortmund 2-2 Atletico (Correa)
71' GOAL! Dortmund 3-2 Atletico (Füllkrug)
74' GOAL! Dortmund 4-2 Atletico (Sabitzer)
88' SAVE! Fine stop from world-class Oblak
90' Sub! Reus replaces Brandt
Match Report
Diego Simeone dropped to his knees, then fell face down in his technical area. Even after 674 games in charge, his Atletico Madrid team still find new ways to surprise him.
He warned of suffering in the build-up; he warned that punishment was on the horizon and Atletico, seeking their first Champions League semi-final appearance in seven years, would need to show some old fashioned resilience to get there.
Only that was in short supply here. Chaos, that’s what this was. Pure chaos.
And that is not the Diego Simeone way; that’s not what his Atletico Madrid are anymore. No longer the masters in defence. No longer an impenetrable force. They are fallible and Dortmund made them pay.
Four times Jan Oblak was collecting the ball out of his net. Make that 11 games in a row without a clean sheet for Atletico Madrid.
Dortmund left Spain after the first leg down 2-1, ruing an opportunity missed having only turned up after going behind. Julian Brandt hit the bar late on at the Wanda Metropolitano - it was still playing on his mind when he arrived at Signal Iduna Park.
Here at home this was all about harnessing the energy of their famed ‘Yellow Wall’ and dictating from the off as youth triumphed over experience. It was how they overwhelmed PSV Eindhoven in the previous round. Barely able to hear yourself think, teams freeze, even ones as experienced as Atletico.
Hours before kick-off, as has become customary, the Yellow Wall was packed. The away end was vociferous in reply but Dortmund’s players knew they needed to do little to whip their fans into a frenzy.
It should have been 1-0 and the perfect start inside four minutes when former Manchester United loanee Marcel Sabitzer was picked out five yards out with a cutback, only for him to take a touch and the chance was gone.
Seconds later Atletico broke, quickly turning defence into attack as they have done so often and so successfully under Simeone, as Alvaro Morata’s pace took him through one on one. He lobbed goalkeeper Gregor Kobel but put it wide. Simeone was in disbelief.
Thereafter Dortmund would dominate, with Brandt, the man of the match, putting them ahead on the night and levelling the tie, before Chelsea loanee Ian Maatsen fired them ahead five minutes later with his first ever Champions League goal.
Dortmund, unfancied when the group stage draw was made and they were paired with PSG, Newcastle and AC Milan, thrive at home, now unbeaten in their last 10 Champions League games on their own patch.
It wasn’t all to go to plan for Dortmund, though. For two sides whose seasons have been beset by inconsistency, perhaps that was to be expected.
A treble substitution at half-time by Simeone turned the game, at least temporarily, on its head and a Hummels own goal and a smart finish by Angel Correa soon had Dortmund sweating on their progress.
Atletico would crumble, though, their second wind fleeting, as Niklas Fullkrug and Sabitzer both scored in a three-minute frenzy. Simeone was left scratching his head.
‘That means we scored by the way.’
It made about as much sense as the football on display. Pure chaos, pure theatre. It was everything Atletico Madrid have not been at their best under Simeone.
Line-ups
Dortmund XI: Hummels, Sabitzer, Emre Can, Füllkrug, Brandt, Gregor Kobel, Julian Ryerson, Sancho, Karim Adeyemi, Nico Schlotterbeck, Maatsen
Subs: Reus, Alexander Meyer, Sule, Wolf, Özcan, Marcel Lotka, Felix Nmecha, Youssoufa Moukoko, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Julien Duranville, Kjell Wätjen
Atletico XI: Witsel, Azpilicueta, Oblak, Griezmann, Morata, Koke, De Paul, Gimenez, Hermoso, Llorente, Nahuel Molina
Subs: Savic, Gabriel, Saul , Correa, Reinildo Mandava, Horaţiu Moldovan, Riquelme, Pablo Barrios, Antonio Gomis, Arthur Vermeeren, Adrián Niño