FK Krasnodar vs. Borussia Dortmund: Winners and Losers from Europa League Game
FK Krasnodar beat heavily favoured Borussia Dortmund on Matchday 5 of the UEFA Europa League on Thursday, 1-0, at home in the Kuban Stadium.
As expected, the hosts' head coach Oleg Kononov selected a fairly attacking side, with an attacking trident of Pavel Mamaev, Ari and Fedor Smolov being protected by a concentrated midfield threesome of Charles Kabore, Odin Ahmetov and Mauricio Pereyra.
Dortmund, meanwhile, made six changes from their disappointing loss at Hamburger SV on Friday, with Roman Weidenfeller, Lukasz Piszczek, Sven Bender, Jonas Hofmann, Gonzalo Castro and Adrian Ramos replacing Roman Burki, Matthias Ginter, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Marco Reus, Shinji Kagawa and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the starting lineup.
Reus, Kagawa and Aubameyang didn't even make the trip to southern Russia out of precaution—or, in Kagawa's case, to give him a rest.
It took Krasnodar all of 27 seconds to take advantage of a miscue in Dortmund's defence. Skipper Mats Hummels pulled Pereyra's jersey, prompting Dutch referee Serdar Gozubuyuk to point to the spot—probably a fair decision. Mamaev converted with a somewhat audacious kick in the middle of Weidenfeller's goal.
The visitors weren't shocked by going behind and had a golden opportunity to equalise just six minutes later, but Ramos' brilliant lob bounced from the ground on to the crossbar and in front of the goal line.
Dortmund were dominant without creating too many chances for the rest of the first interval: Andriy Dykan parried a Ramos header in the 43rd minute, Bender missed an unmarked header from a corner moments before intermission.
Krasnodar defended fairly well but were lucky not to concede, with two more balls hitting the woodwork in the second half: Kabore almost scored an own goal trying to head the ball away after a corner in the 63rd minute, while Henrikh Mkhitaryan hit the post after Marcel Schmelzer squared him the ball 15 minutes from time.
Ramos saw a penalty appeal denied three minutes after Mkhitaryan's chance, with the replay showing Krasnodar couldn't have complained had Gozubuyuk pointed to the spot again.
One could almost feel that it wasn't going to happen for the Black and Yellows on the day. They played fairly well but failed to make their dominance count, as they would definitely have been deserved winners.
Krasnodar have now qualified for the round of 32 and taken the lead in Group C. Since they kept Dortmund off the scoresheet and thus won the head-to-head, Krasnodar will win the group with a victory over lowly FK Qabala on the last matchday.
Here's our look at the winners and losers from the game.
Winner: Mats Hummels
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His inclusion as a winner might come at a surprise to those who haven't watched the game, considering he gave the decisive penalty away, but Dortmund's captain was easily the best player on the pitch from the second to the 94th minute.
Hummels' big strength—his creativity in the buildup—was on display time and time again, with Dortmund's struggling skipper slicing Krasnodar up with surgical precision.
Thomas Tuchel agrees with our assessment of his No. 15, saying after the match that if there was a drop in performance from Hummels on the day, it lasted only 35 seconds (via the club's Twitter, in German).
Loser: Dortmund's Right Side
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Dortmund played with two new faces on their right side, as Hofmann and Piszczek got a rare chance in the starting XI against Krasnodar, thanks to Reus' absence and Tuchel's decision to give Ginter a rest. In short, both players failed to seize their opportunities.
Hofmann actually hurt his team more than he helped their cause, as a number of bad touches in and around the penalty box ruined some promising moves. Per WhoScored, he only had 26 touches in 67 minutes spent on the pitch. Local paper Ruhr Nachrichten graded Hofmann as Dortmund's worst player in the game.
Piszczek didn't do much better at right-back. He continues to look like a shell of his former self, as his runs going forward produced nothing noteworthy. Defensively, he struggled with the fluidity of Krasnodar's attack. It's fairly easy to see why Tuchel prefers Ginter to the 30-year-old.
Winner: Oleg Kononov
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Kononov's Krasnodar were not only the first side to beat Dortmund under Thomas Tuchel on the European level, they also were the first all year to keep Dortmund off the scoresheet, as Squawka noted on Twitter.
While their win was certainly lucky and not exactly thoroughly deserved, credit is due to Kononov.
His side impressed in both meetings with the Black and Yellows, who—remember—only beat Krasnodar at home thanks to the latest of late winners.
On Thursday, his side obviously benefited from going in front before the last fan had taken his seat, but they had to defend that result for 88 minutes. Tuchel is certainly correct in saying the result was paradoxical (via the club's website, in German), but that shouldn't take anything away from a brilliant result for the home team.
Loser: Julian Weigl
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His statistics don't show it, but this was easily Weigl's worst game for the club. The 20-year-old struggled especially in the first half, misplacing a surprising amount of passes and giving away a number of free-kicks.
Seeing as Weigl is the only Dortmund player to feature in every single one of the 24 matches across all competitions, it's not far fetched to think—as Ruhr Nachrichten do— that he was a bit tired for this contest.
After his poor performance against Hamburg on Friday, it seems like Weigl has hit a bit of a wall in his rookie season at the highest level of German football. Considering his importance to Dortmund's playing style and the lack of a genuine alternative in the squad—as long as Nuri Sahin is still out injured—Tuchel has to hope Weigl's drop in performance is only temporary.
Winner: Adrian Ramos
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Despite not finding the net as a stand-in for Aubameyang, Ramos reminded fans and—perhaps—his manager that he's someone they can trust to come through when called upon.
Due to the Gabonese's amazing goalscoring form this season, Ramos doesn't get a lot of extended opportunities, as he's often relegated to mop-up duty as a substitute. Unlike others, he made the most of his chance against Krasnodar.
The Colombia international was desperately unlucky not to score on the day, hitting the crossbar with a fantastic lob while also seeing two headers parried away very well by Krasnodar's 'keeper Dykan. As we mentioned, he could also have won a penalty for his side.
While he's no longer Dortmund's talisman—the Black and Yellows hadn't lost any of the 14 games Ramos appeared in this season, according to Opta—his inspired performance in the Europa League could well have earned him more opportunities.
