Dortmund’s head coach Juergen Klopp waves while leaving after the UEFA Champions League quarter-final, second leg match. (AFP)
DPA/Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund left the Champions League with immense pride on Tuesday night after coming agonisingly close to one of the biggest comebacks in European football history. Injury-ridden Dortmund comprehensively outplayed record winners Real Madrid but their 2-0 victory from Marco Reus’ double was not enough to reverse a 3-0 defeat in Spain.
“Almost a miracle,” the Sueddeutsche Zeitung paper said yesterday, and Bild said: “No miracle but you are wonderful.”
The 65,000 gave Juergen Klopp’s team a standing ovation after the big fight in which Henrikh Mkhitaryan was denied by the post and Real goalkeeper Iker Casillas denied several other top-rate chances.
“Out of a million possibilities to go out, this was still the best,” Klopp said.
Dortmund’s Germany defender Mats Hummels agreed, saying: “This was a night we won’t forget anytime soon. We had a couple of chances for a third goal and came so close to clinching one of the biggest upsets in football.”
Dortmund beat Real in the 2013 semis, mainly thanks to Robert Lewandowski’s four goals in the first leg. This time around the Poland striker didn’t find the net, hitting the post ahead of Reus’ second, but he was suspended a week ago in Madrid.
The heavy defeat there, without scoring, eventually made the difference, Klopp said. “We should have played better in Madrid where Real was clearly the better team. We were the better team in the second leg, but only won 2-0 and that was not enough. It is how it is. We should have scored in Madrid, because then we would have gone through,” Klopp said.
Nuri Sahin was the latest injury victim with back problems on the night, and captain Sebastian Kehl was suspended to add to the long list of absentees which also includes Neven Subotic, Ilkay Guendogan and Marcel Schmelzer.
Instead, young Serbian Milos Jojic got his first place in Dortmund’s starting 11, at the biggest stage, and Klopp had nothing but praise for him, and the likes of Oliver Kirch and Manuel Friedrich.
“All three played extremely well. Milos Jojic is just 21, he started his first match for Borussia Dortmund, in the Champions League and against Real Madrid, of all teams. I have rarely seen such naturalness,” Klopp said.
