Match date: 9 April 2013

Manuel Pellegrini was without some first choice players for Malaga’s second leg tie, but having held Dortmund to a scoreless draw in the first leg, it meant that one away goal could possibly win them the tie.

Klopp chose to start Santana despite having Mats Hummels available to him and also opted to start Sven Bender rather than Sebastian Kehl alongside Gundogan.

Build up at the Back

Dortmund are known for playing high tempo football, especially high up the pitch as Marco Reus, Mario Gotze, and Robert Lewandowski combined incredibly well as seen in Lewandowski’s goal, but they generally are very good at working the ball out of the back, especially with Mats Hummels in the side. Unfortunately, he was unavailable in the first leg of the tie and was on the bench at the start of this match as well. Santana and Subotic aren’t bad passers of the ball, but Hummels certainly has better ability than them in terms of connecting with the midfield and getting the ball into the final third accurately.

Dortmund were definitely hindered by two things; the first being the absence of Hummels to link with Gundogan and Bender quickly out of the game and Malaga’s deeper defending at the back and in the midfield. If you recall in the last leg, Malaga played an incredibly high line at the back and were disjointed in the midfield which allowed Dortmund to easily get around Iturra and Toulalan. Today, the combination of Toulalan and Camacho looked much more comfortable marking Bender and Gundogan when Dortmund centre backs had the ball. In the first tie, Subotic and Santana combined on a total of four passes:

In the second leg though, with Malaga looking more solid in the back and through the midfield, so Dortmnd’s centre backs were forced to combine on a total of 43 passes:

Dortmund’s Pressing, Malaga’s Defending

Dortmund’s high tempo passing game is just as important to their philosophy as their ability to press well high up the pitch and they showed their abilities again today, making 5 interceptions in Malaga’s half and winning 3 of their four tackles. Malaga again had a hard time trying to play the ball through Toulalan and Camacho as they did in the first leg and were forced to play more in the wide areas. In fact, neither Toulalan or Camacho completed more than 70% of their attempted passes.

During the first leg of the tie, Malaga played a very high line and allowed Dortmund to get in behind numerous times, whether it be straight runs through or diagonal runs in behind, Dortmund were present numerous opportunities and should have been well ahead in the tie coming into the second leg. Away from home though, Malaga sat back much deeper and didn’t press as much as they did in the first leg, which was largely ineffective anyway.

Dortmund were still able to get in behind at times, with Reus and Gotze’s runs though with both having really good opportunities to give Dortmund the lead prior to Eliseu’s goal, but usually there was limited space behind the Malaga defenders and the ball would either run out for a goal kick or Caballero, who was excellent in both legs and kept Malaga in the tie, would gather.

Changes

Dortmund went 2-1 down in the 82nd minute as Malaga’s, Eliseu, substitute got on the end (possibly offsides) of Julio Baptista’s pass/shot to slot home their possible trip to the semifinals. The goal really came from the tinker of Isco’s positioning on the pitch. He had a hard time getting into the game the first half, but in the second half was much more involved and made the key pass to get Baptista in.

Klopp had already brought on Nuri Sahin for Sven Bender and Julian Schieber for Jakub Blaszczykowski as he looked to get a second, but once Eliseu had scored, he opted to make his final change and bring on Mats Hummels for Gundogan, who had another good game.

It might seem a strange one, even a negative reaction by Klopp, but it makes sense it you think about Hummels’ qualities as a centre back. First, it allowed Santana to move up the pitch and play as another striker, which obviously paid off in the end as he scored the winner, but with Dortmund adding a tremendous amount of pressure on Malaga towards the end of the match, it meant that Malaga were going to clear the ball high up the pitch and weren’t going to press, but were rather going to stay tight and compact at the back. With this, bringing on Hummels gave Klopp his best play making option at the back and a player that would be comfortable taking the ball into midfield as Malaga dropped further back. It was Hummels who delivered the ball into Subotic’s feet for the second goal before the ball came to Reus to slot home.

Conclusion

Santana was offsides for the winner, but Eliseu was off as well for Malaga’s second. Malaga showed a bit more ability in defense tonight, keeping Dortmund’s build up from the back at a minimum.

Dortmund, in terms of the quality of the football, were much the better side through both legs of the tie, but their typically strong ability to finish was thwarted by Caballero, who was first class in both legs. In the end though, Dortmund didn’t win it through their typical play, but through sheer passion and nerves, incredibly emotional scenes on the pitch towards the end and after the final whistle.

You’ll hear it plenty of times throughout the next few weeks, but just a few years ago, the future was looking dark for Dortmund as their finances were a complete mess, but they were able to turn things around and after an unbelievable few minutes of football, they are now through to the semifinals of the Champions League.