Erling Haaland Secures Borussia Dortmund’s Champions League Progression
Erling Braut Haaland scored twice as Borussia Dortmund held off a late Sevilla fightback to progress to the Champions League quarter-finals with a 5-4 aggregate win after a thrilling 2-2 second-leg draw at the Signal Iduna Park stadium on Tuesday.
Dortmund won the first leg of its last-16 tie 3-2 in Seville and the visitors were looking to bounce back. Sevilla attacked from the start and had Dortmund pinned back for much of the opening 30 minutes. Lucas Ocampos and Suso tested Dortmund goalkeeper Marwin Hitz early on, but they couldn’t convert.
However, Dortmund capitalised when Thomas Delaney outmuscled Jules Kounde off the ball and Nico Schulz passed it to Mahmoud Dahoud, who played a fine ball to Marco Reus. The Dortmund captain stayed cool in front of the onrushing Sevilla goalkeeper Yassine Bounou and cut the ball back for Haaland’s easy finish.
In the second half, Haaland had the ball in the net again but the goal was disallowed after the referee decided Haaland had fouled Sevilla defender Fernando before scoring from a tight angle after consulting the pitchside monitor.
However, a penalty was awarded for an earlier infringement on Haaland by Kounde, who had been pulling his jersey when Marco Reus crossed the ball. Yassine Bounou saved Haaland’s penalty and also saved the rebound by Haaland, but VAR intervened again and ordered for the penalty to be retaken as Bono was off his goal line.
Haaland scored at the second attempt and was then booked for taunting the Sevilla goalkeeper with his celebration.
Sevilla’s confidence began to grow as they weren’t going to be knocked out of the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League without a fight.
Dortmund defender Emre Can fouled Sevilla forward Luuk de Jong in the box and a penalty was awarded to Sevilla. Morocco striker En-Nesyri stepped up and blasted the ball into the net to give the visitors a glimmer of hope in the 69th minute.
Sevilla still needed two goals to force extra time and were determined to set up a nervy finale.
In the sixth minute of injury time, En-Nesyri scored again with a powerful header just before the final whistle, but it was too late for Sevilla. Dortmund held on to see out the 2-2 scoreline to progress to the quarter-finals of the competition in a thrilling game.
Haaland has 20 goals in 14 appearances in Europe’s premier tournament in his young career, and he was the key factor in Dortmund advancing.
“I missed the first penalty, but if he’d stood on the line I’d have scored, but he cheated,” Borussia Dortmund striker Haaland said after the match.
“I was a little bit nervous on the second penalty, but I knew it would be nice to score a second goal.”
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