Borussia Dortmund's Champions League progression hangs by a thread after APOEL draw
Borussia Dortmund's hopes of qualifying to the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League hang by a thread after a disappointing draw to APOEL Nicosia on Wednesday night.
Borussia Dortmund 1-1 APOEL
Goals: 1-0 Guerreiro (29'), 1-1 Pote (51')
It was a dominant first half from Dortmund who controlled over 70 per cent of possession, completed 92 per cent of their passes and mustered 11 shots on goal. But in the end, only one goal came in return for their controlling performance. A superb flicked through-ball from Shinji Kagawa put Raphael Guerreiro in behind the APOEL defence, and he scored his first goal of the season in all competitions in his first start.
And so the score remained so with no major chances to follow, but not for long. The next goal was a shock as APOEL brought themselves level through Mickael Pote, who scored on the turn from inside the Dortmund box. Dortmund’s pressure was relentless, though, and two Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang headers, one which hit the crossbar and one which went inches wide, were the closest Dortmund came to grabbing a winner in the second half. After Tottenham Hotspur beat Real Madrid 3-1 in the other match in Group H, Dortmund sit five points adrift of Real in second place.
Watch: Pulisic determined to help Dortmund turn corner
Line-ups
Dortmund: Bürki -Bartra, Sokratis (c), Toprak (Schürrle 85’), Guerreiro (Schmelzer 72’) - Weigl, Kagawa, Götze - Pulisic, Philipp (Yarmolenko 65’), Aubameyang
Subs: Weidenfeller, Sahin, Yarmolenko, Isak, Schürrle (Toprak 85’), Castro, Schmelzer
Coach: Peter Bosz
APOEL: Perez - Vouros, Rueda, Merkis, Carlao, Alexandrou (c) (Sallai 46’) - Vinicius, Morais, Zahid, Aloneftis (Farias 82’) – Pote (De Camargo 74’)
Subs: Gudino, Farias (Aloneftis 82’), Efrem, Makris, Antoniou, Sallai (Alexandrou 46’), De Camargo (Pote 74’)
Coach: Giorgos Donis
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Match stats
- Bosz's troops trail joint Group H leaders Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid by six and five points respectively with two games remaining.Dan-Axel Zagadou scored the first goal of his professional career in BVB's defeat to Hannover, but was later sent off. Dortmund have reached the knockout stages of the Champions League in four of the last five seasons (as well as the Europa League quarter-finals in 2015/16).BVB have now failed to win three consecutive league encounters for the first time since December 2016.Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored 15 goals in all competitions for Dortmund this season, including one in the Champions League.
As it happened