Borussia Dortmund will play the biggest European club final at Wembley on June 1 after eleven years. 22-year-old Ian Maatsen will then become by far the youngest Dutch player in the final battle of the premier class this century. The left back also remained upright in the return against the French guns, just as the entire team of coach Edin Terzic had little to fear from Paris Saint-Germain for a long time.
Just like in Dortmund (1-0), the favorite needed a goal against to seriously increase the pressure. While it fell off the foot of Niclas Fullkrug in Germany at the end of the first half, it was another powerhouse in the French capital, Mats Hummels, who put Dortmund into the final shortly after half-time with a striking one-footed header.
PSG still pressed and hit the post twice and the crossbar twice in the last half hour, but stars Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé could not prevent a new failure in the Qatari project. In 2011, PSG was acquired by the company Qatar Sports Investments. Under the leadership of the wealthy Nasser Al Khelaifi, the club has been chasing the cup with the big ears in vain ever since.
Al Khelaifi, who breathed a sigh of relief last month when the home defeat against Barcelona was reversed, saw attempt twelve fail again last night. For this edition, he had further increased his transfer expenditure at PSG by another 400 million euros to almost two billion and also appointed a seventh international top coach.
We were no worse in either match, but football rewards those who score and not those who hit the post and crossbar
PSG coach Luis Enrique
Under Luis Enrique, French hegemony was simply extended, but what if he was eliminated from the Champions League by Dortmund? “Then life goes on and we will try to reach the final again next year,” the Spanish coach responded laconically and irritated at the same time.
Can Qatari project still succeed?
The Spaniard was appointed to rejuvenate PSG as well. He showed this by fielding the youngest team in fifteen years in the semi-finals. It wasn’t enough. Even without the departed stars such as Lionel Messi and Neymar, PSG collectively proved to have not grown sufficiently to seize the holy grail.
“We were no worse in both matches, but football rewards those who score and not those who hit the post and crossbar,” the Spanish coach finally said after the defeat. “We hit the post or crossbar six times. We had 31 shots on target and we still didn’t score. This is hard to believe. We accept the elimination, no matter how unfair it may feel. Congratulations to Dortmund.”
Most of his predecessors did not survive missing out on the Champions League. The pressure on Luis Enrique will also increase in the coming weeks. It will then become clear whether Al Khelaifi dares to continue building with a success coach. That will most likely have to happen without the biggest star. Mbappé is expected to move to Real Madrid next summer. You may wonder how realistic a CL victory is for PSG and the Qatari and whether the project against Dortmund has not definitively failed.
Mbappé therefore showed guilt afterwards: “I should have scored first. I tried to help my team as best I could, but I didn’t do enough,” said the 25-year-old Frenchman, who, unlike his coach, did not want to talk about ‘bad luck’. “I don’t like those kinds of terms. If you are good, you don’t hit the post, you score.”
Dortmund in the clouds
For Dortmund, where Donyell Malen remained on the bench, the fairy tale continues. Terzic, whose job was still fully at stake in an eight-hour crisis meeting in December, guided his character and fighting team to the final battle as Dortmund’s third coach ever. The German people’s club first became group winners in the group of death, but they failed to beat PSG. In the knockout phase, PSV, Atlético Madrid and PSG had to make do. Real Madrid or Bayern Munich will soon be waiting at Wembley. These European giants will compete against each other on Wednesday evening.
We talked about it before the match in Eindhoven about how short the road to London is
Borussia coach Edin Terzic
This could make his farewell very special for Marco Reus. The German recently announced that he would leave after this season after twelve years. “It’s indescribable. What a week for me personally. Ending with the final of the Champions League, where it all started with the 2013 final. To then be in the final again with Borussia Dortmund more than ten years later, fantastic! We suffered a lot, but later we are no longer asked how we did this.”
Borussia coach Terzic especially hopes that he does not lose the last match of the season again this year. “Last year we lost the championship in the last game of the season. I’m happy that we can now give something back to the fans. We grew with every match and realized that we could be the team that could surprise us. We talked about it before the match in Eindhoven about how short the road to London is. We will need some time to realize this, but we are very much looking forward to it,” said the coach, who eliminated PSV with his team in the eighth finals.
Mbappe…! No! Schlotterbeck hinders the Frenchman just enough to stop him from scoring, but not enough for a penalty for PSG. Dortmund holds on!
90′
Four minutes of extra time. Will Dortmund survive this crazy final phase? The Germans withdraw with the entire team to the sixteen-meter line.
88′
It’s unbelievable, but PSG hits the bar again! It is the fourth (!) time this match that the French hit the aluminum. How lucky the Germans are here!
86′
Ball on the crossbar! By hanging and strangling, Dortmund can prevent a goal from PSG. Mbappé shoots from close range, but he is not allowed to do so. Sensation in the final phase!
85′
Julian Brandt is replaced by Felix Nmecha
84′
Yellow card for Achraf Hakimi
77′
Goal Dortmund? No! Offside, the arbitration rules. That decision is correct, because Hummels is well behind PSG’s last defender. There it was almost the experienced defender of the Germans with a goal again.
76′
Warren Zaire-Emery is replaced by Lee Kang-in
75′
Yellow card for Ousmane Dembélé
74′
Mbappé also tries from a distance, but the French superstar is not in the game at all. His shot flies high over the goal. Still more than fifteen minutes plus extra time to go in Paris, Dortmund can smell the final!
70′
Hummels gets the ball shot right in his face and has to recover from it for a while. Fortunately, the goalscorer can continue.
67′
Jadon Sancho is replaced by Niklas Süle
At Borussia the battle plan is clear: keep things closed at the back. The Germans seem to be playing with five defenders.
67′
Yellow card for Mats Hummels
66′
Free kick, the referee decides!
65′
Penalty? Free kick? The VAR can now look into that! Hummels brings down Dembélé in a dangerous position on the edge of the box.
64′
Yellow card for Marcel Sabitzer
63′
Fabián Ruiz is replaced by Marco Asensio
63′
Gonçalo Ramos is replaced by Bradley Barcola
61′
PSG hits the post again! Mendes pulls the trigger from about sixteen meters, but encounters the aluminum. That certainly doesn’t bother the French.
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