UEFA Fixtures: Adeyemi’s strike push Dortmund down Chelsea
Karim Adeyemi scored the sweetest and only goal in this match as Borussia Dortmund had the upper hand in this UEFA Fixtures.
This is the first win of the German side over the English Premier League side in the UEFA Champions League as the first time they did was way back in September 2014 against Arsenal (2-0). Germany International Adeyemi scored in the 63rd minute to put Borussia Dortmund in front midway of the second half via individual effort, getting the ball at midfield and outruned his defenders all the way to Chelsea’s goal. For upcoming UEFA fixtures visit Onlinebetnow here!
“We dominated the first half. They had chances, but we were in control for the majority of the first half,” Jude Bellingham said at the post-match press conference. “In the second half we took the foot off the gas and they had more control.”
The English side had the upper hand in the first half, Thiago Silva immediately put the ball in the net after just 16 minutes since the start of the match, but the Chelsea Captain was called for a handball. Eventually, Dortmund flawlessly found their rhythm and had full control of the game and pressured Chelsea to commit errors after errors, forcing and pushing themselves for a goal. This kind of pressure ended the focus of Chelsea on both defense and offense, as Dortmund’s Adeyemi picked up the clearance from a Chelsea turnover and raced his way to the pitch and beat Fernandez in the sprint then toying Kepa for the winning goal.
“It’s a poor goal. We have to do better. We were pushing at the time and we were the better team,” Potter said during the interview after the game. “They know they can do better with that. But we will focus on the positives. It was another step forward for us. The spirit is there in the team. We need a bit of luck and the performance level we had tonight and just keep improving.”
After Adeyemi’s winning goal, Chelsea had their own chances too, but were immediately denied by Emre Can’s 78th minute goal line clearance and Gregor Kobel did a fantastic series of block and saves including Fernandez’s attempt. These two sides will meet again for the second leg of the round of 16 in London this upcoming March 8.
The Borussia Dortmund boss spoke to the media after the match and emphasized that it was great to come out on “winning side.”
“It’s great to come out on the winning side. There was a little bit of luck involved and we had an exceptional goalkeeper. But there’s no need to apologize after winning at home against Chelsea in the last 16. I feel like we defended our goal well but made it a little too easy for them to get into the final third at times. If you saw how often we threw ourselves into challenges, how many shots we blocked, Chelsea have an incredible quality up front. But Gregor Kobel is in incredible form and we know when things get tight we can rely on him.
On the other side, Chelsea Manager Graham Potter addressed the problems of the team throughout the match and assured to search remedies for those issues and get the best out of Chelsea in order to advance in the quarterfinals stage.
“It was a very strong performance, especially the second half. We created a lot of chances and efforts on goal but I am disappointed with the goal we conceded. I thought we were the dominant team in the second half. It is half-time in the tie, we have to regroup.
“I thought we had good attacking movements, clarity in terms of how we wanted to attack and got into the right areas. The attitude was really positive as well.”
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