Borussia Dortmund Cement Status as Europa League Favourites by Dominating Spurs
Borussia Dortmund's impressive 3-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League round of 16 on Thursday evening served as another reminder of why the Black and Yellows are considered favourites to hoist the trophy in Basel's St. Jakob-Park on May 18.
Yes, Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino didn't field his best XI, with key players such as Eric Dier, Dele Alli and Jan Vertonghen missing the game for various reasons and others, namely Mousa Dembele, Erik Lamela and Harry Kane, only entering the pitch as second-half substitutes.
But it was still a strong team Dortmund faced at Signal Iduna Park. Apart from attacking midfielder Josh Onomah, every one of the players in a white shirt on the field on Thursday has played a big part in their club's campaign so far. (Oddly enough, the teenager was Spurs' lone bright spot, as the Mirror's Darren Lewis pointed out after the game.)
Pointing out that Tottenham didn't play with their first string shouldn't take anything away from Dortmund's performance. After all, the Black and Yellows were without perhaps their most important player, too, as Ilkay Gundogan missed the game at short notice after picking up a knock in team training on Tuesday.
Still, the Ruhr side annihilated Spurs, as Deutsche Welle tweeted during the game:
In the process, they cemented their status as favourites for the Europa League.
It was one of the most dominant performances from Dortmund all season, and there are plenty of those to choose from. Head coach Thomas Tuchel was accordingly delighted:
Obviously aided by Pochettino's weak midfield selection, BVB bossed the middle of the park for the entire 90 minutes.
As tactics blogger Constantin Eckner pointed out after the game in a piece for YellowWallPod.com, the Argentinian's "side employed a high pressing line, but had little to no success against Dortmund," adding that "the likes of Mats Hummels and Sven Bender were able to let the ball circulate through the deep zones."
Most importantly, however, "Julian Weigl displayed authority in the middle of the park," as Eckner put it.
The 20-year-old once again showed maturity beyond his years with a mightily impressive performance, orchestrating the game masterfully despite missing his running mate in Gundogan.
Per Squawka.com's Greg Johnson, he was "the key conduit linking together Dortmund’s play, ensuring their transitions from aggressively pressing to win the ball and then exploding with quick feet and clear heads on the break."
It was startling to see how much more sophisticated Weigl looked in comparison to, for example, Ryan Mason—an England international, mind you.
It's only fitting that Dortmund's No. 33 was the catalyst for the third goal, which, in all likelihood, decided the tie before the Black and Yellows travel to White Hart Line next week. It was his pinpoint vertical pass to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang that sounded the charge for another of his side's dangerous attacking moves.
The video below only shows the later parts of the brilliant move:
The goal "was preceded by 21 passes, a joint-record this Europa League season," as stat provider Opta relayed on Twitter:
This move resulted in one of the finest team goals Dortmund have scored all season—and again, there are plenty to chose from, as the Black and Yellows have now scored 106 across competitions—and it mirrored the entire game.
The Westfalenstadion crowd could easily have celebrated even more goals. Gonzalo Castro, who replaced Gundogan in midfield and did very well, hit the post early in the second half, marking the 10th time Dortmund have hit the woodwork in this European campaign, per German broadcaster Sky. Erik Durm and Aubameyang, among others, also missed opportunities to make the scoreline even more humbling for Spurs.
With the comforting three-goal advantage in the bag, it would take a breakdown of epic proportions for Dortmund to miss the quarter-finals. The other teams still in the competition surely took notice of their exploits on Thursday.
The Black and Yellows, quite frankly, look head and shoulders above everyone else in the Europa League. They are, as they say, the team to beat. Just don't expect anyone to actually do so.
Lars Pollmann is a Featured Columnist writing on Borussia Dortmund. He also writes for YellowWallPod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
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