Match date: 3 April 2013

Manuel Pellegrini said his goal for the first leg of Malaga’s quarterfinal was to not concede an away goal. Though they have come out with a 0-0 draw leading into the second leg, you have to say that they should have been at least 4-0 down with the way Malaga’s back four played.

Malaga’s Back Four

For a team that was looking not to conceded, Malaga really did just about everything rather poorly. Demichelis and Welington are in their early 30’s and neither have much pace and surely aren’t as mobile as Borussia Dortmund’s front four attacking players, but they seemed insistent on playing a high line and allowing Dortmund players, particularly the straight runs of Mario Gotze, to get into the space behind them. The image below is Gotze running onto a ball from a Lewandowski flick off a Schmelzer clearance.

They also had trouble dealing with Lewandowski’s movement. He would   consistently drop deeper for the ball, but Malaga’s defensive line failed to push on at the right times and they were easily caught out by simple passes into Lewandowski, leaving him one one one with either Welington or Demmichelis. Gundogan’s passing in particular was key in opening up Malaga’s back line. The image below shows a simple ball from Gundogan into the huge space behind Malaga’s back four, finding Lewandowski.

It wasn’t just simple straight runs that caught them out though. Far too many times, the later runs of Reus, Gotze, Grosskreutz, and both full backs would exploit the space left by the Malaga full backs as they either pushed themselves too high up the pitch to try and support Malaga’s attack or they would squeeze narrowly in support of their centre backs.

Dortmund’s Pressure

One of the key parts of Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund side is their ability to press and the win ball back quickly, at times very high up the pitch, and counter attack.

They important thing was that Dortmund pressed together and they first line of pressure was rarely beaten as Malaga were usually too slow in their passing. Malaga tried to press Dortmund as well, but it came in spurts and they didn’t press as a unit making the game stretched and easy for Dortmund to get around the first line of pressure and in behind Toulalan and Iturra to put immediate pressure on Malaga’s back line.

Dortmund’s pressing made Isco, Baptista, and Saviola largely ineffective throughout the game as Malaga found it more and more difficult to get the ball to them despite the ball playing abilities of both Welington and Demichelis. The pressing also forced Iturra and Toulalan deeper, allowing Kehl and Gundogan more time on the ball, both of whom completed more than 85% on their passes compared to Iturra and Toulalan who completed under 85%. With this, Gundogan was probably the best player on the field, attempting 81 passes, the most on the field, and created 3 chances for the front four.

Conclusion

Dortmund should be far and away, but they didn’t take their chances well. Gotze could have had a hat trick and Lewandowski and Reus could have had one each, but Malaga will be pleased that they were somehow able to keep a clean sheet.

Malaga will have to look to get the ball into the feet of their front four much more effective in the second leg as they really only had a threat down the right side of their attack with Gamez getting forward well and combining well with Joaquin. They’ll be without Welington and Iturra in the second leg though and Dortmund will undoubtedly be able to continue creating chances for themselves at home.