A minimal advantage, but it can be the key to success. A tight victory, although it served to untie the knot. A success that strengthens and makes it possible to observe Borussia Dortmund’s future with a more encouraging perspective and a setback that forces Paris Saint-Germain to attempt a comeback. The yellow tide, a mixture of energy and inner fire, was pure euphoria in Westafallen, after 1-0 in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals. The adventure will move on Tuesday to the Parc des Princes, and whoever takes the ticket will travel to Wembley, the scene of the meeting that everyone dreamed of when they began the journey.
The drama, the emotionality, the multiple risk situations in a framework that represented hell. A game of pauses and harmony that suddenly became a wild development with two teams marching from area to area with the challenge of getting hurt. Responses from the archers, posts that denied the celebration, definitions that lacked the final thrust, figures with credentials who offered the classic repertoire and names who longed for a prominent meeting to show that they have the virtues to be in the catalog of the outstanding. A first act in which the difference could have been greater for the Germans, as PSG was also close to returning to France with the support of a draw.
The attacks enveloped the sense of danger over the two arches. The recent history – PSG came undefeated against Dortmund: 2-0 and 1-1, in group F – had no influence on the strategy, although the drive was not the same. The Germans, fifth in the Bundesliga, were trailing Leipzig 4-1, a result that prevented them from taking the rival’s place, which is the last place for next season’s Champions League; PSG, on the other hand, won the crown of champion of the Ligue1 and points to a historical fact: the triple crown, something that no team has obtained in French football.
The experience of the trident that they make up Mats Hummels, Emre Can and the Austrian Marcel Sabitzer; the explosion by the bands Jadon Sancho y Karim AdeyemYo; the intelligence of Julian Brandt to manage the pace and stalk of Niclas Füllkrugscorer of the goal, the cards with which Borussia Dortmund extended its undefeated record at home in international competition: two draws -Milan and PSG- and four victories, the harvest of a structure that does not suffer away from home, although The two defeats that added one are against the Gauls.
Borussia Dortmund’s victory over PSG
“We may be the least experienced team, but we are the hungriest team. We have to work hard every day to get to Wembley,” the coach is excited. Edin Terzic, who wants to take the club to the legendary London stadium to close the wound that resulted from the fall with Bayern Munich in the 2012/13 season, the first final that two German clubs played in the highest club competition on the Old Continent. For Hummels and Marco Reus, who came on in the second half, it would be the opportunity to avenge that 2-1 defeat that Arjen Robben sentenced with a minute left.
Borussia Dortmund also knows what it means to lift the Orejona: He did it in the 1996/97 season against Juventus. For PSG, the Champions League is an object of desire: on one occasion they played in the final match and lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich. Captain Marquinhos, star Kylian Mbappé and goalkeeper Keylor Navas – substitute in Germany – are the survivors of that formation in which Ángel Di María and Leandro Paredes played. For the French star, it will be the last function in the cycle to win that trophy for which the Qatari investment fund spends millions of euros in transfers and contracts of figures, and does not bend the line even by enlisting Neymar, Mbappé and Lionel Messi together. .
The statistics, the million-dollar figures, the background succumbed to a detail that seemed out of context between two teams that attack through passing associations: a ball found PSG’s defense in disarray and Füllkrug defeated Gianluigi Donnarumma; The attacker was able to extend the score later and on two occasions, but he raised the shots. On the other hand, coach Luis Enrique was forceful: “I would have signed to generate the chances that we generate, but we have to be effective“, he lamented the shots on the post by Mbappé and Achraf Hakimi – in the same play -, the high shot by Ousmane Dembelé and the headers that did not discover Fabián’s goal.
Borussia Dortmund also survived those attacks, which travels with a minimal advantage, but which at the end of the series could be immense.