Last night’s UEFA Champions League action saw Borussia Dortmund beat Sevilla away from home 3-2 thanks to two goals and an assist from Erling Haaland. Whilst Porto managed a giant-killing, beating Juventus 2-1 at the Estádio do Dragão.
Sevilla 2-3 Borussia Dortmund:
Erling Haaland scored a first-half brace ending Sevilla’s nine match winning run and putting Borussia Dortmund in the driving seat ahead of the second leg at the Signal Iduna Park on March 9th.
The Spanish side went ahead in the seventh minute after Suso’s strike took a deflection off Mats Hummels wrong-footing Swiss goalkeeper Marwin Hitz.
It wasn’t long before the German side responded doing so in some style with a 25 yard strike from Mahmoud Dahoud finding the top right corner leaving Bono no chance.
Then began the Erling Haaland show, after fellow wonderkid Kylian Mbappe stole the show at the Camp Nou the night prior, scoring his first Champions League hat-trick, Haaland saying after the game he got “Free Motivation” after seeing Mbappe score his hat-trick.
The Norwegian put Dortmund ahead in the 27th minute after a superb run and a cheeky one-two between himself and Jadon Sancho seamlessly cutting through the Spanish’s side’s defence, who certainly didn’t look as though they’d only conceded one goal in their past nine games!
Haaland then extended his sides lead just before half-time after Ivan Rakitic lost the ball leaving Marco Reus with a three on two counter-attack, carrying the ball forward before laying it off to Haaland who slotted it past Bono once more.
The second half saw a more rejuvenated Sevilla side with substitute Oscar Rodriguez hitting the post from a 25 yard free-kick which had Hitz beaten. Rodriguez ten minutes later put in a superb ball which Luuk de Jong finished giving the hosts a consolation five minutes from time.
There were shouts for a Sevilla penalty in injury time after a questionable tackle from Thomas Meunier on De Jong but VAR wasn’t interested.
Sevilla and Dortmund’s form coming into the match could not be more contrasting, Sevilla having won their previous nine domestic games while only conceding one goal, Dortmund on the other hand only managed to win two out of their last seven games, conceding 14 goals in that seven game span.
Haaland now has 18 goals in 13 Champions League games, which is by far the quickest anyone has scored that amount of goals in that little time in the competition. It’s fair to say that he responded to Mbappe’s hat-trick with a statement of his own against Sevilla last night.
Jude Bellingham also became the youngest ever English player to play in the knockout rounds of the Champions League at only 17 years and 233 days.
The return fixture is on March 9th and will take place in Dortmund at the Signal Iduna Park, Haaland and co hoping to progress to the quarter-final for the first time since the 2016/17 season.
Porto 2-1 Juventus:
Porto shocked Juventus scoring within two minutes of the start of both halves thanks to goals from Mehdi Taremi and Moussa Marega.
Porto’s first goal was thanks to some calamitous defending from Juventus, Wojciech Szczesny passing it out to Rodrigo Bentacur, who in turn left his goalkeeper short on the return pass allowing Taremi to sneak in and give Porto the lead within 62 seconds.
Szczesny also gave the ball away 20 minutes later in what was a night to forget for the Polish goalkeeper, this time Sergio Oliveira’s shot blocked by Matthijs De Ligt.
Porto then doubled their lead within 20 seconds of the restart of the second half after Wilson Manafa slid in Marega who calmly finished at the near post.
Oliveira then came close to adding a third after being allowed to run with the ball but was denied by a strong right hand from Szczesny.
Federico Chiesa scored a consolation for Juventus eight minutes from time after a superb ball from Adrien Rabiot, giving the Italian some hope ahead of the return fixture at the Allianz Stadium on March 9th.
Cristiano Ronaldo who was kept extremely quiet throughout the night wanted a penalty in injury time after falling inside the Porto box, however the referee and VAR deemed Ronaldo was already on his way down before contact was made from Zaidu Sanusi.
The disappointing result for Juventus reflects the poor domestic season they are also enduring under Andrea Pirlo, sitting eight points off top after winning the title for the previous nine years.
But as everybody knows the Champions League is Ronaldo’s forte and Juventus are certainly far from down and out in this tie, many believing that they are still favourites to make it through to the Quarter-Finals. It’s certainly sure to be an enthralling encounter in the Second Leg.
