Jonathan Liew was in Dortmund tonight. His report is here. Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
Dortmund’s Mats Hummels speaks to TNT Sports. “It was intense … it was a lot of fun … everybody gave it all 100 percent … we didn’t play perfect so it’s good to see we can still get a result against such a good team … all around we can be very happy with the result … we know how hard it is for opponents to beat us here … problem is we have to go to Paris … I have never won in Paris so it’d be a good time to try for the first time … it will be a good atmosphere … we can look forward to a great game … it is 90 minutes to the final … we know what we want … we are one little step closer … but we are not over the finish line.”
As part of the team that lost to Bayern Munich in the 2013 Wembley final, the 35-year-old defender is asked if he’s hoping for a chance to go back there and right some wrongs. “Of course … it was my only Champions League final in my career, it would be so great to have a second one … especially at this age, I did not expect a chance that big to come again … it would be a dream.
Post-match postbag. “More scoring chances than an NBA playoff game. That was incredible” – Gary Breen
“Based on today’s performance PSG’s home address is somewhere on the Rue de Misses” – Peter Oh
“No English clubs, and Anthony Taylor proving there should be no English officials. Does the top tier of English football need to take a look at itself?” – David Singleton
The roof comes off the Westfalenstadion as the final whistle goes! The two coaches Edin Terzic and Luis Enrique embrace each other with the most genuine of smiles, on the verge of laughing after witnessing a fantastically entertaining first leg. Dortmund sit in a line, in front of the Yellow Wall, soaking in the celebratory atmosphere. But how on earth did it end 1-0? Kylian Mbappé and Achraf Hakimi hit the inside of both posts in the space of ten seconds; Ousmane Dembélé blazed over when it was surely easier to score. Up the other end, Niclas Füllkrug was shoved in the back by Nuno Mendes and should have been awarded a penalty, while the electric Jadon Sancho set up Julian Brandt for what looked like a second, only for Marquinhos to arrive out of nowhere with a block for the ages. Cast-iron fun from beginning to end … and all of that without mentioning Füllkrug’s goal, the ball pulled out of the air delicately and dispatched with venom. Next week’s second leg in Paris promises to be a doozy.
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FULL TIME: Borussia Dortmund 1-0 Paris Saint-Germain
The underdogs will take a precious lead to Paris next week!
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90 min +3: PSG press but Dortmund hold their shape. Fabián Ruiz eventually crosses. Kobel claims and eats up a few seconds by flopping down.
90 min +1: The first of four additional minutes sees the goalscorer Niclas Füllkrug replaced by young Youssoufa Moukoko.
90 min: Zaïre-Emery meets a left-wing cross, but there’s another close-range header flying harmlessly over the bar.
89 min: On TNT, Ally McCoist – who has been rhapsodising over Jadon Sancho all evening – names him as his man of the match. He doesn’t even have to make a selection, TNT aren’t demanding one, but insists on doing so anyway.
87 min: A right-wing cross drops to Fabián Ruiz, eight yards out. He’s got to work Kobel at the very least, but flays a header high and wide. What a miss (pt. XXXVIII in an ongoing series). Meanwhile Nmecha and Wolf replace Brandt and Ryerson.
85 min: That Sancho pass, though. A delicate little flick, perfectly weighted, and between Beraldo’s legs to boot! If only Brandt hadn’t taken a touch before shooting. He allowed Marquinhos to intervene.
84 min: Brandt barrels down the middle and lays off to Sancho on his right. Instead of shooting, Sancho slips a return ball down the channel. It looks like Brandt has to score, but the second he shoots, Marquinhos arrives from nowhere to block. What defending! The ball’s sent back in from the right, but Reus heads over. Top defending that spoilt the chance of a picture-book goal. What a ball that was from Sancho!
82 min: Vitinha drags a shot wide from 12 yards. PSG have had their chances. Then Adeyemi, who let Hakimi tear clear a couple of minutes ago, is replaced by Reus, exhausted. He’s put in a very stylish shift.
80 min: Vitinha dribbles at Hummels but can’t get past. A brilliant block tackle that sets Dortmund off on the counter. Brandt loops a cross from the left. Nuno Mendes, who hasn’t had a good night, misjudges the flight and lets the ball drop over his head. Sabitzer should chest down and shoot, but doesn’t anticipate the error and the chance is gone. Then PSG break. Hakimi romps into acres down the right. He cuts back for Dembele, who races into the box down the middle to meet the ball. He’s got to score, but leans back and sends a wild effort screeching over the bar. PSG should be level.
79 min: Fabián Ruiz crosses from the left. Ryerson blocks. Corner. It’s worked back to Nuno Mendes, who attempts to release Dembele with a floated ball down the left channel, but gets too much on it. Goal kick.
77 min: Both teams look a little punch drunk now. But still they push on. They’ve given everything. This hasn’t been a 1-0 game. It just hasn’t been.
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75 min: Sancho has Nuno Mendes on toast. He turns his man in and out down the right, before his goalbound shot is deflected, the sting removed. Easy for Donnarumma.
74 min: Nuno Mendes requires some treatment after having his foot accidentally trodden on by Schlotterbeck. He’s up and running again soon enough, though.
72 min: Mbappe scoops a cute pass down the inside-left channel, between two defenders, to release Dembele into the box. Dembele shoots low and hard, across Kobel, but the keeper sticks out a strong arm to deflect the ball into the air. Maatsen completes the job by heading clear. PSG so close again!
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71 min: Sancho sits Nuno Mendes down with a dribble and dragback down the right. He reaches the byline but can’t tee anyone up for a shot. You can feel the anticipation rising every time he gets the ball.
70 min: The pace of the game drops for the first time in a long while. But other chances are surely not long in coming.
68 min: Just the one goal, yet this has been every inch as entertaining as last night’s match in Munich. Speaking of which, here’s Julian Menz: “I spent six great years in Duesseldorf. Unfortunately, Fortuna are a club with the Reverse Midas Touch. Dortmund might be a local ’rival’ (we wish), but I know all the football fans gathered in the Altstadt will be supporting them. Not to mention the fact that Bayern are less than loved in Germany.”
66 min: Fullkrug isn’t letting that miss put him off, and now he Keith Houchens a left-wing cross inches over the bar. On another night, he could easily have bagged a hat-trick.
65 min: Edin Terzic is beyond livid, and you can’t blame him. Another glorious success for PGMOL’s finest! Meanwhile Randal Kolo Muani comes on for Bradley Barcola.
63 min: One simple blooter down the middle of the park. Adeyemi can’t get the better of Hakimi. But Dortmund come again, Brandt crossing from the left. Fullkrug waits to batter a header home at the far post … only to be nudged by Nuno Mendes and sent off balance. Two hands in the small of the back. It’s surely a penalty, but referee Anthony Taylor shows no interest, and neither do his PGMOL buddies. An absurd non-decision.
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62 min: Sancho is absolutely everywhere. He’s been magnificent tonight. Oh Manchester, so much to answer for.
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60 min: Dortmund miss two big chances in short order. First Brandt drags a shot wide left from 12 yards. Then Sancho dribbles electrically down the right and pulls back for Fullkrug, six yards out. Fullkrug has to score, but leans back and hoicks over. What a miss! As egregious as his first-half strike was delicious. In a parallel universe somewhere, it’s 3-3.
58 min: A shot of Mbappé grinning ruefully after that absurd woodwork-bothering double whammy. Penny for his thoughts. Penny for them too as Fullkrug has a whack from the edge of the D, the ball taking a ludicrous deflection off Marquinhos and only just missing the bottom left corner. Donnarumma out of the game completely. Nothing comes of the resulting corner.
56 min: Marquinhos crosses low from the right. Fabian Ruiz, ghosting in, somehow steers the ball wide right from six yards with only Kobel to beat. How on earth are PSG not level?!
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55 min: Just before all of that nonsense, Vitinha dribbled down the middle only to run into hapless referee Anthony Taylor. The player wasn’t exactly shy in telling the official exactly how he saw it.
54 min: Mbappe shows just inside the Dortmund box on the left again. He swivels and whips a first-time shot towards the near post. Kobel claims with safe hands. PSG have taken it up a notch all right!
53 min: Fabian Ruiz is booked for a cynical check on Adeyemi.
51 min: PSG hit both posts in the space of seconds! Mbappe glides in from the left and curls an stunning shot across Kobel and off the inside of the right-hand post. The ball rolls across the face of goal but doesn’t spin in. Then some pinball, and Hakimi batters a shot off the base of the left-hand post … and that one whistles across the face of goal as well! PSG eventually clear their lines. Wow. The visitors so unfortunate!
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50 min: Adeyemi chases after a long pass down the left at warp speed. He crosses deep for Sancho, who slips as he prepares to shoot. Sancho still recovers and forces a corner, but the real chance is gone. Nothing comes of the set piece.
48 min: Barcola cuts in from the left and takes a whack. Straight down Kobel’s throat. That’s PSG’s first serious effort on target.
47 min: Dembele drives hard down the PSG right. He wins a corner off a combination of Maatsen and Schlotterbeck. Nothing comes of it. Both teams in an attacking frame of mind.
46 min: Sancho is immediately in action down the right. He slips a pass down the wing for Ryerson, whose cross is easily cleared and the flag pops up for offside anyway. But there’s an early sign that Dortmund aren’t of a mind to settle for 1-0.
Dortmund get the second half underway. No changes.
Half-time entertainment. Tonight’s mid-match distraction comes courtesy of Jonathan Liew, who was in Munich last night to witness a mini-classic between two members of European royalty.
HALF TIME: Borussia Dortmund 1-0 Paris Saint-Germain
Niclas Füllkrug’s wonderful touch and strike is the difference as the teams make their way to the dressing rooms. It’s been great fun.
45 min +4: Maatsen drives down the left and draws a foul from Hakimi. Dortmund load the box. Brandt pulls the free kick back for Sabitzer, who mishits his shot, the ball ballooning softly towards Donnarumma. The keeper doesn’t catch cleanly, though, and for a second the loose ball is there to be contested, hanging in the air. Shades of Divock Origi versus Jordan Pickford in the Merseyside derby a few years back, but Donnarumma claims the ball at the second attempt with Fullkrug waving a leg hoping to prod home. That would have been a comic masterpiece.
45 min +2: PSG try hard to get something back before the break. Barcola closes down Kobel, who spins out of danger bravely and adroitly to clear. Then Dembele fizzes in a low cross from the right. There’s nobody in white near enough to poke home, and Ryerson swivels to bash away from the six-yard box. As defensive clearances go, it was a doozy.
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45 min: With the ball loose from Sabitzer’s shot and Donnarumma’s block, Maatsen goes over in the vague environs of Marquinhos, who brushes his shirt with a high kick. There’s not much contact, but Dortmund want a penalty. They’re not getting one. VAR doesn’t take too long to make the decision, to be fair.
44 min: Taking receipt of a low left-wing cross, Fullkrug juggles the ball on the penalty spot and tees up Sabitzer, who creams a fierce shot goalwards from 12 yards. Donnarumma makes an outstanding point-blank block. Sabitzer should have made it two.
43 min: PSG have yet to have a shot on target, they’re one down, and they’ve lost one of their centre-backs. The team seem collectively down on themselves right now.
41 min: Lucas Hernández made a challenge on Füllkrug in a futile attempt to stop that goal. He’s jarred something while extending a leg across the striker, who wasn’t to be halted, and he goes down. Hernández won’t be able to continue, and trudges off sadly. Lucas Beraldo takes his place.
39 min: On TNT, co-commentator Ally McCoist reveals that Paul Lambert, who won the Champions League with Dortmund in 1997, has just texted him: “Get in ya beauty!”
37 min: That was an old-school goal all right. But what a pearler! The run timed perfectly to beat the offside trap as well. Exquisite.
GOAL! Borussia Dortmund 1-0 Paris Saint-Germain (Füllkrug 36)
Schlotterbeck launches long down the inside-left channel. Füllkrug, in full flight, brings the ball down with one touch, enters the box, and lashes a low drive into the bottom left from 12 yards. Unstoppable! Simple as you like, in the 1980s style, but a beautiful goal nonetheless. What a touch and finish!
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34 min: Barcola makes a royal nuisance of himself down the left, reaching the byline and attempting to find Mbappe or Vitinha in the middle with a low cross. The ball goes behind everyone. Dortmund breathe again.
33 min: … so PSG draw sting from the game with some professional passing around the back.
31 min: Dortmund immediately come again, Schlotterbeck crossing from the right, Hakimi slicing an attempted clearance hysterically over his own head and crossbar. The resulting corner comes to nothing, but this is better from BVB, who had previously been ineffective for too long.
29 min: The free kick is blootered clear, but picked up by Sancho, who dribbles elegantly down the inside-right channel and enters the box. He can’t quite work space to shoot so lays off to Brandt, who pearls a shot towards the top right. Marquinhos sticks a brave head in the way and deflects a fine effort away from danger.
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28 min: Adeyemi crosses the field to work the left flank, and draws a clumsy foul from Hakimi, near the corner flag. The hosts load the box. Brandt to take.
27 min: Dortmund can’t get anything to stick in the final third. The home fans are still making plenty of noise, but there are a few groans as well every time an attempted attack breaks down.
25 min: PSG ping it around the back patiently. Then suddenly Dembele bursts down the right, feeding Hakimi on the overlap. Hakimi runs the ball out for a goal kick, but these are increasingly worrying times for the hosts, who are letting PSG have the run of it at the moment.
23 min: Mbappe and Fabian Ruiz attempt a couple of one-twos down the middle. It nearly comes off; the former would have been free in the box had the very last flick come off. PSG are slowly getting on top.
21 min: Play is briefly stopped for Hernandez to get some treatment. He ran slap bang into the back of Sabitzer as that aforementioned free kick was developing. The VAR chappies rock and roll the film, but there’s nothing to look at here. We play on.
20 min: Dembele swings the free kick in from the right. Too long. It’s gathered by Fabián Ruiz on the opposite flank, who returns it. Dembele arrives and heads weakly goalwards. It’s easily cleared.
19 min: The first yellow of the evening as Maatsen pointlessly scythes down Zaïre-Emery from behind. A free kick in a dangerous position on the right.
18 min: Dembele takes another whack at goal from distance. This one sails well wide right of goal. “Bonus point if you work in ‘It’s a doozy’ after something Julian ‘Ned’ Ryerson does,” writes 1990s rom-com fan John Moloney.
16 min: For the first time since the off, the pace drops. The noise pouring down from the stands doesn’t, though. “Bonus point if you work in ‘It’s a doozy’ after something Julian ‘Ned’ Ryerson does,” writes 1990s rom-com fan John Moloney.
14 min: The busy Sancho steals the ball and sets Dortmund on the attack. Brandt slips a clever ball in from the right flank for Sabitzer, who shoots straight at Donnarumma from a tight angle. So close to a well-worked opener.
12 min: Barcola finds Mbappe again, just inside the Dortmund box this time. Mbappe is quickly swarmed and can’t work space to shoot. PSG look like they fancy this Barcola-Mbappe combination.
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11 min: Dembele drags a speculative shot well wide left of goal. The first effort of note, and it’s not particularly good.
10 min: Barcola slips a pass into Mbappe, 35 yards out. Mbappe briefly considers embarking on a solo run, as there are no other options ahead of him. Instead he turns tail and the move, such as it is, peters out.
8 min: Dembele had a great game for PSG against one of his former clubs, Barcelona, in the last round. He’s facing another of his old teams tonight, and is the recipient of ironic cheers as he carelessly gifts BVB possession in the middle of the park. All good knockabout pantomime stuff.
6 min: … so having said that, Sancho ships possession too easily and PSG tear off on the counter. Mbappe feeds Hakimi down the right, but Adeyemi comes back to barge the PSG right-back off the ball. Hakimi wants a free kick, but he’s not getting one. A hard but fair shoulder charge.
5 min: Dortmund see plenty of the ball. Sancho popping up all over the place as well, already looking far more confident and assured when compared to his Manchester United self.
3 min: Ryerson makes a glorious nuisance of himself down the right. Dribbling hard. Pressing hard, too, upon losing control. He wins a throw deep in PSG territory. It’s flung in long, but the ball’s cleared easily enough. A high-octane start by both teams.
1 min: Barcola, who was excellent against Barcelona, is quickly on the ball and nearly sets Mbappe free down the left. A confident start by the visitors, if it’s possible to say such a thing after 60 seconds or so.
PSG get the ball rolling. What a fine atmosphere! “I’m not a BVB fan but will root for any club that’s up against PSG, especially one that plays a Pet Shop Boys tune to celebrate a home goal. PSB > PSG.” Peter Oh there, deliberately ignoring the existence of the Village People lest they compromise his punchline.
The teams are out! All manner of noise at the Westfalenstadion; the Yellow Wall doing what it does best. The home team in their vivid yellow and black, the visitors in second-choice white with red-and-blue sash. Action ahoy, once Uefa have done their usual pre-match thing of sending poor old George Frideric Handel spinning at 78rpm in his grave.
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These two teams met in the group stage. PSG won 2-0 in France on Matchday 1 thanks to Kylian Mbappé and Achraf Hakimi, then in the final round of fixtures this happened …
… which meant Dortmund won the group, three points clear of PSG, who edged past AC Milan on the head-to-head record. And now we come to this.
The clubs previously met in two other European campaigns. In the 2019-20 Champions League round of 16, Dortmund won 2-1 at home, two Erling Haaland goals bookending a Neymar strike, but PSG won the return 2-0, Neymar scoring again before before Juan Bernat found the winner. PSG made it all the way to the final, which they lost to Bayern Munich. History preparing to repeat? Meanwhile in the 2010-11 Europa League groups, they pair played out a couple of undistinguished draws.
Harry Kane, Jamal Musiala, Vinícius Júnior, Toni Kroos: a few names who got good notices for their performance last night in the Bayern-Real match. Also mentioned positively in dispatches: the referee Clément Turpin and his VAR team of Jérôme Brisard and Willy Delajod. They let the game flow; Brisard made a series of quick and confident on-pitch decisions, and there were no interminable pauses caused by frantic forensic tape-spooling, despite the award of two penalty kicks. Marvellous. Helping out Anthony Taylor in the VAR room tonight? Stuart Attwell and David Coote, two other regular stars of the PGMOL’s popular light-entertainment vehicle Match Officials Mic’d Up. It’s going to be a fun evening of compare and contrast. Mind you, if tonight’s game, officiated under the auspices of Uefa, goes as smoothly as last night’s, it might be worth finding out exactly what Howard Webb is telling these poor chaps to do back home.
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Borussia Dortmund are coming off the back of a miserable 4-1 loss at RB Leipzig, and make three changes. Marcel Sabitzer, Ian Maatsen and captain Emre Can replace Salih Özcan, Felix Nmecha and Marius Wolf, who all drop to the bench.
Paris Saint-Germain needed a couple of late goals to salvage a 3-3 draw at home to Le Havre last Saturday, and make five changes to their starting XI. Kylian Mbappé, Lucas Hernández, Nuno Mendes, Fabián Ruiz and goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma take the places of Marco Asensio, Danilo, Randal Kolo Muani, Lucas Beraldo and Keylor Navas, all of whom are named as subs.
The teams
Borussia Dortmund: Kobel, Ryerson, Hummels, Schlotterbeck, Maatsen, Sabitzer, Can, Sancho, Brandt, Adeyemi, Fullkrug.
Subs: Ozcan, Nmecha, Haller, Reus, Wolf, Moukoko, Malen, Sule, Meyer, Laurenz Lotka, Watjen, Bynoe-Gittens.
Paris Saint-Germain: Donnarumma, Hakimi, Marquinhos, Hernandez, Nuno Mendes, Zaire Emery, Fabian, Vitinha, Dembele, Mbappe, Barcola.
Subs: Navas, Ugarte, Goncalo Ramos, Asensio, Danilo Pereira, Lee, Mukiele, Carlos Soler, Lucas Beraldo, Skriniar, Tenas, Muani.
Referee: Anthony Taylor (Cheshire).
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Preamble
If this first leg of the second semi-final proves to be even half as entertaining as last night’s 2-2 draw between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, we’ll be doing pretty well. The 1997 champions and the 2020 runners-up get down to business in the Westfalenstadion at 8pm BST. It’s on!
