Match date: 25 February 2014

Prior to this match, Zenit hadn’t played a competitive match since mid-December, with the Russian Premier League in their winter break. They lead the Russian Premier League, however, they struggled in the Champions league group stages. Despite progressing, they only accumulated six points, drawing all three of their home games and winning away against Porto.

Dortmund have had a turbulent season compared to the last season when they made it to the finals of the Champions League. They sit 20 points behind Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, at times of had all four first choice defenders out with injury, and will be losing Robert Lewandowski to Bayern in the summer for free.

Both sides set up in a 4-2-3-1, with Spalletti giving Jose Rondon his debut for the club. Having just lost Bender to an injury, Kehl started alongside Sahin in centre midfield.

The Dortmund of Old

Last year, and years prior in the Bundesliga there were three main reasons that Dortmund were so successful in their Champions League campaign; they won the ball high up the pitch, known as gegenpressing or counterpressing, were the best in the world at positive transitions, and played well in wide areas.

These three principles haven’t changed, but due to injuries and new players replacing departing players, Dortmund have certainly struggled to effectively executed them. Against Zenit, however, Dortmund looked much like they did at the height of their play last year.

Dortmund’s pressing and quick transitions go together. They look to win the ball as close to the opposition’s goal as possible and, with numbers committed forward in order to press, they have the ability to play quickly towards goal in transition. Against Zenit, each of Dortmund’s four goals were scored from quick transitions. The first two were from Zenit clearances won at midfield by a Dortmund header. The third, was from a tackle won by Sokratis in Dortmund’s half and took just four passes to move up the pitch and score. For the fourth goal, Reus won the ball off of Tymoshchuk after a lazy pass from Neto. Reus found Lewandowski, who slotted the ball across Lodygin into goal. Below, you can see the just how many times Dortmund won the ball back in Zenit’s half, putting enormous amounts of pressure on the Zenit defenders when they were in possession and when they had to immediately defend Dortmund’s counter attacking.

One of the most important players for Dortmund last year was Mario Götze. He was played behind Lewandowski, but it was his movement into the wide areas that allowed Dortmund to keep possession of the ball well in the opposition’s final third. The overloads in the wide areas allowed Dortmund to draw the opposition to the ball before playing quickly around them. Götze left for Bayern in the summer, and Dortmund bought Mkhitaryan as his replacement. The Armenian international has had a decent season thus far, but has struggled to replicate the role played by Götze.

In the match against Zenit, however, Dortmund and Mkhitaryan looked much better in the wide areas than they have for much of the season. Their movement was bright and they consistently looked to create numbers up situations. In the picture below you can see five Dortmund players on the left side of the pitch against three Zenit players.

Their quick play into wide areas on transitions, looking to catch opposition full backs that were high up the pitch out of position, allows Lewandowski more room in the penalty area as one of the centre backs has to move across the line to cover their recovering full back. Against Zenit, Dortmund’s second and third goals, in particular illustrated this well.

Zenit’s Response, Hulk Moves Central

Conceding two away goals in the opening five minutes of a Champions League knockout stage match is almost a concession of the tie and Zenit needed to respond in the second half. Arshavin needed to be subbed early on in the match because of injury, with Tymoshchuk being brought on for him. Tymoshchuk played alongside Axel Witsel in the holding roles. Shatov, who started the match behind Rondon moved to the left, where Arshavin was, and Faizulin moved into the role behind Rondon.

For much of the first half, Hulk played high up the pitch, usually allowing Schmelzer to support Grosskreutz when Dortmund had the ball without much defensive work. He stayed out wide, even when in possession of the ball, and it allowed both Schmelzer and Grosskreuz to surround him when he had the ball. His influence in the first half was minimal and his decision making was poor overall.

In the second half, however, Hulk had much more of an influence. It began with his positioning. He was already high up the pitch in the first half, but most of his play was in the wide right area of the pitch. For the second half, he played much closer to Rondon, and his movement’s inside showed the weaknesses in Dortmund’s defense. Below, are UEFA’s positional charts for Zenit. On the left is the first half and on the right is the second half. Hulk is number 7.

Zenit’s first goal was the result of good play from Hulk, dribbling at the Dortmund back line before finding Faizulin and making a run into the Dortmund penalty area before Faizulin lifted the ball over the Dortmund back four. The move caused confusion and after a save, Rondon hit the post, and the ball fell to Shatov, who scored.

it was Hulk as well that received the ball centrally and dribbled at the Dortmund back line before Zenit won their penalty, which Hulk scored. His second half performance was much better than his first as he got on the ball more and was better with his decision making, but in the end, it wasn’t enough for Zenit.

Conclusion

Dortmund are certainly in a good position to advance to the quarter finals, having scored four away goals, meaning Zenit would have to win 3-0 in order to advance. Dortmund looked a better side than they have for large parts of the season and the scoreline could have been 4-0 to Dortmund with the belief that Subotic and Hummels could have better dealt with the second half threat of Hulk and the resulting moves that turned into Zenit goals.

Zenit looked undone by the long winter break. They seemed to lack focus and made simple errors that Dortmund were able to capitalise on and turn into chances. Spalletti was brave in giving Rondon his club debut and it will interesting to see who leads the line in the second leg of the tie as well as where Hulk will be positioned.