Match Date: 5 March 2013

Dortmund host Shakhtar after a 2-2 draw in the first leg that saw Dortmund equalize late on to get two crucial away goals. The sides remained relatively unchanged for the second leg, with each side making forced changes due to injury; Felipe Santana coming in for Mats Hummels and Olexander Kucher coming in for Dmytro Chygrynskiy.

Shakhtar Shaky At the Back

In the first leg, Shakhtar conceded a lot of shots, with Dortmund taking 17 total, 7 of which were on goal. They also conceded very late on from a corner kick allowing Dortmund to equalize and get two away goals. Early on in this match as well, Dortmund were able to score off a corner, taking a 1-0, which meant that Shakhtar had to scored at least two to get through to the quarterfinals.

Prior to the corner, Shakhtar’s defense was really poor. Too many times, their back four was dragged out of position by the runs of Gotze and Reus and Lewandowski dropping into the hole. The centre backs weren’t helped with the lack of defensive helped from the two holding midfielders in the side, Hubschmann and Fernandinho, who were much to blame for the centre backs poor play.

The tactics suggested that Fernandinho push up to try to stop Dortmund from playing out of the back, whether it were Santana, Bender, or Gundogan. The higher he pushed up though, the bigger space that was created in behind the Brazilian midfielder, a space that Gotze and Reus were running into and a space that Lewandowski was dropping into. Below you’ll see the average positions (from Whoscored.com) of the Dortmund players, focus on Gotze (10), Reus (11), and Lewandowski (9). Each of their average positions are in the same area.

Here you’ll see the average positions of the Shakhtar players (again courtesy of Whoscored). Focus on Fernandinho, number 7.

The area that he voided was the same area that, had he been in, he would have been able to track the runs of Gotze and Reus and not allow Lewandowski to continue to drop into. However, with him so high up the pitch, it became the responsibility of the centre backs to try to stick with the three mentioned Dortmund players.

The first really good ahnce that Dortmund had came when Fernandinho was caught out and Ratitskiy had to step to Dortmund, leaving the space in behind him, which Lewandowski got into.

Quite a big space to let a striker like Lewandowski into, but Pyatov wisely came off his line to make a save.

It wasn’t the only time the Shakhtar centre backs made poor defensive players. The second goal came because of poor tracking and marking by the centre backs again. Gotze was being tracked by Ratitskiy outside of the box, but Gotze went into the space behind him, with the Shakhtar centre back focusing on the ball, Gotze was able to get across him with ease and redirect the ball past Pyatov.

The third goal as well came from initial poor defending and then poor handling by Pyatov. Gundogan got forward, exchanging passes with Blaszczykowski, and found himself at the top of the penalty area with no one around him, allowing him to take a shot. Fernandinho had been marking Gundogan, but followed the ball when he passed it to Blaszczykowski, with no one stepping to the ball. It allowed Gundogan to be free, receive the ball, and have the shot, with Pyatov failed to hold, allowing Blaszczykowski to finish.

One Change Causes Initial Problems

Douglas Costa, who scored in the first leg of the tie to give Shakhtar a 2-1 lead, started on the bench in the second leg, but was introduced in the second half and had a noticeable impact.

Immediately, Shakhtar looked to move the ball a bit quicker and were a bit more direct. Costa was deployed on the left, with Teixeria moving to the right into Taison’s position. Costa’s pace and trickery gave Shakhtar something that they were lacking in the first half. On 47 minutes, he started a run from inside his own half that saw him beat three Dortmund players and get into the Dortmund penalty area only to lack a final product.

He had another chance after Luis Adirano held off then turned Subotic well, drawing in Schmelzer, allowing Costa to run into the space. Costa received and shot just a bit wide of the far post.

Dortmund Through

Dortmund controlled most of the game, outside of a few minutes in the beginning of the second half when the introduction of Douglas Costa looked to give Shakhtar a bit of a lift. It wasn’t long until Dortmund finished off the tie thanks to poor defending and goalkeeping.

Dortmund are certainly a side that could have a good run, not only because they have a good side and play good football, but they can really put all of their focus on the Champions League now that they are too far back in the league and are out of their domestic cup. They’ll be hoping for a kind draw.