Borussia Dortmund knocks on the door to the round of 16 against FC Sevilla, but cannot open it fully. In front of a record crowd, Jude Bellingham is the savior with a record after conceding a standard goal. RB Leipzig takes a big step towards the knockout stages thanks to Timo Werner.
Match ball awarded: Borussia Dortmund has to sit in detention in the fight for a place in the round of 16 in the Champions League. Coach Edin Terzic's team did not get more than 1-1 (1-1) in the second leg against Sevilla FC and now has to buy a ticket for the knockout phase against Manchester City or FC Copenhagen.
"It wasn't a good game from us. Football is actually a simple game, we often make it complicated for ourselves," said Mats Hummels on Prime Video. Dortmund would have lost a lot of the ball, "that was completely unnecessary against an unsettled team in front of 80,000 fans." His teammates must understand that "football doesn't always have to be sexy," Hummels demanded. Jude Bellingham (35') saved BVB from their second defeat in the group stage after falling behind through Tanguy Nianzou (17'). BVB won the first leg in Andalusia 4-1 last week.
Anthony Modeste returned to the starting XI after his last-minute equalizer against Bayern, regular keeper Gregor Kobel was back in goal for the first time since early September after recovering from injury. Overall, Terzic changed his team five positions in contrast to the top game against Munich (2:2). But BVB didn't take the hoped-for momentum into the game against the six-time Europa League winner in front of 81,000 spectators. The guests presented themselves as safe on the ball, Dortmund ran after them at first. Former Schalke player Ivan Rakitic missed the first good opportunity to put the Spaniards ahead (12'), two minutes later it was time. Former Munich player Nianzou headed in a Rakitic free-kick.
Dortmund found it difficult. The BVB game lacked speed and precision in the first half hour. Modeste was hanging in the air in the center of the attack, also because national player Karim Adeyemi passed too hastily after winning the ball against Marcao (24th). Then Bellingham, who had been strong as a bear for weeks, went ahead again. The 19-year-old pushed a cross from Thomas Meunier over the line to equalize. After a clever back pass from Julian Brandt, the England international narrowly missed the lead from 18 meters (41'). Terzic reacted to his team's mediocre performance in the first half and brought on the previously rested Raphael Guerreiro for the young Tom Rothe. The hosts increased the pressure. Niklas Süle tested guest goalkeeper Yassine Bounou from a distance (53').
But Sevilla acted much more organized under the new coach Jorge Sampaoli than in the first comparison under coach Julen Lopetegui. Despite the loud support of the black and yellow annex, Dortmund found it difficult to find gaps in the Spanish defensive network. Youssoufa Moukoko replaced the inconspicuous Modeste in the 64th minute. The encounter remained hard-fought, and Sevilla became bolder again during this phase. But Kobel parried strongly against Erik Lamela (67th).
Happy ending thanks to Timo Werner: The star striker, who had been hapless for a long time, led RB Leipzig to a very important victory in the Scottish cauldron in the fight for the Champions League round of 16. In front of the eyes of future sports director Max Eberl, the DFB Cup winner won 2-0 (0-0) at Celtic Glasgow. With six points from four games, RB kept close in the race for the knockout round.
Werner (75') and Emil Forsberg (84') after Werner assisted, scored in front of 60,000 spectators in Celtic Park for Leipzig, who had won the first leg 3-1 the previous week. With two defeats and two wins, RB has every chance of progressing in the remaining two games in Leipzig against Real Madrid (October 25) and in Warsaw against Shakhtar Donetsk (November 2).
"It can be assumed that the mail will go off and it will be wild," Rose said before the Celtic game - and it started quickly. The Japanese Daizen Maeda (1st) headed just over the RB goal in the first attack. After that, Leipzig controlled the ball without creating any real big chances at the beginning. Meanwhile, Celtic pressed, looked for depth and became immensely dangerous. Whipped on by the audience, the hosts kept running. RB was lucky that Matt O'Riley (27th) only hit the post from a distance - and Greg Taylor only hit the crossbar in the margin. RB often lacked the last consequence on the offensive, so that a single action, a shot by Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart held by Christopher Nkunkus (45th), remained the greatest RB chance of the first half.
After the break, Leipzig got out of the dressing room better, after an attempt by Amadou Haidara, Hart defused the shot from the pursuing Orban (49th). In a game that was as competitive as it was balanced, Werner was also allowed to pull to the goal, but the attacker didn't make enough of it - for example, when Werner's long-range shot (62nd) bounced off the Celtic defense. It was Werner, too, who put down for defender Mohamed Simakan (69th) before he chased the ball over the goal. It took just four minutes for Werner to do better after a chip cross from Andre Silva. Celtic didn't give up after that either, threw everything forward and pressed for the equaliser. Forsberg used the resulting space on the other side.
