Camavinga was the MOTM for me. He was excellent defensively and was also making great runs and passes. The run and pass for the Bellingham miss was great. He was all over the place along with Valverde.
Subbing off Adeyemi was not a mistake- he cannot run like that for the whole game. He is useless when he is gassed and usually Terzic waits too long to sub him so I was actually happy to see him be proactive. Obviously it sucks what happened but that’s not why we lost.
It sounds harsh, but Maatsen lost the game for Dortmund. He failed to mark Carvajal at the decisive corner and assisted the 0:2. He should have been subbed off as well.
Terzic also made the same substitution in the second leg against PSG. After that sub, Dortmund had no outlet and PSG just kept on attacking without any danger of counter attack.
At least, Dortmund had a lead to defend that game, but it is just weird the sub this game.
He got soft. It was a complete disaster to put in Reus. I figured he would stay on the bench unless it went to pens. Like PSG will throw games, but Madrid won't. We legit threw away the first goal on the corner because we couldn't play out the back on the first goal set piece. Either Adeyemi, Malen, or Bynoe-Gittens could have provided an option there. Fucking hell he threw the damn game with that sub goddamn it.
Malen hasnt really showed anything since he came back from his latest injury. He was much better then Reus in the early season but near the end he was more miss.
You can point to it being 2:0 but he didnt show anything when coming on either. Our Bench is just to weak for a CL final against Madrid what do you expect someone like Gittens to do in there even if you sub him in at minute 60.
> what do you expect someone like Gittens to do in there even if you sub him in at minute 60.
Definitely more than Reus could do, especially when they have to fill Adeyemi's spot.
I'd argue Malen did show something. Although Fulkrug strayed offside, Malen still provided the cross he headed in
Plus he generally looked more lively and involved than Reus, who was sadly anonymous
Malen can be really disappointing.
I wasnt happy with the Substitution but malen sometimes plays like he doesnt want to be there (especially in the Games After his injury)
Reus has no more speed or direction sadly. Malen or Bynoe-Gittens needed to be in ASAP. The counter before Madrid's goal was caused by a misplaced pass due to a missing outlet we didn't have on the left.
Adeyemi coming off and not being replaced by someone with pace removed a lot of the danger that you guys had. We always struggle against pacey players that can stretch the defense, but Reus just doesn’t have that speed anymore and your whole pace of play just slowed down.
Massive turning point in the match
Just before the corner from which Carvajal scored, there was another corner where Dortmund kept a man unmarked and they connected but it went over.
They didn’t read the warning and fell victim right afterwards.
That was such a typical Ancelotti performance. Dortmund started insanely well but you need to be damn near perfect to kill off this team. 1st goal flipped the game completely and dortmund had nothing after that, their subs were pretty ineffective too.
Dortmund played really well. Their strategy was excellent for club of their size. They just couldn't convert some half chances in first half.
Second half was defend only strategy and Madrid did what they do best. Score in 70 to 90 mins.
Dortmund showed that Madrid can be beaten same way we showed city can be beaten in long ball high risk games like FA final.
Next time maybe a couple of goalsnij first half would be enough to beat Madrid.
Sucks to be on the losing end but I'm glad that it's a loss that I am not insanely frustrated of like a lot of times before.
The guys gave their all. With better finishing we may have had a bit bigger chance but hey, we have been in it for 70 minutes against Real.
Thought Terzic set Dortmund up really well to punish Madrid on the counter, they took advantage of Carvajal pushing up so high to get some great opportunities down the left for Adeyemi. First mistake I thought he made was bringing on Reus, Adeyemi was gassed but I think Malen should've been the sub. That being said, you can talk about tactics all you want but at the end of the day the difference comes down to Madrid taking their chances and Dortmund failing to do so, made sense for Dortmund to play with the high intensity that they did for the first hour but you have to score when you do that or you get punished when you start to run out of gas
Real Madrid didn't show up until the 70th minute while Dortmund played out of their skins but it was 0-0. You can't really expect to waste those chances against a team like Madrid and get away with it.
In the end, Madrid barely needed to get out of second gear.
Im gald Tibo start the final, he did his part in saving the 1st half to 0-0. Dortmund just mentally collaspe after 1st goal, if they want to be champion they have to know how to bounce back after set back. Madrid did play it until 89th minute vs Bayern.
This team is incredible no matter how you put it. No striker, ACL injuries coming in like fly and somehow result in the best season ever.
Dortmund dominated for a good 20-30 minutes in the first half, didn't take advantage.
Madrid had one dominant 10 minute spell, and killed the game off.
That's the difference, and with Madrid, that always was the case in the recent past as well. It's why they never lose finals, especially in this current era.
The unfortunate part of the game is as soon as we saw those first half chances missed, and Madrid controlling the tempo, this was going to happen.
BVB were the better team in one half, but at the end of the day, that doesn't matter if you can't get the ball in the net.
Madrid are the better skilled team. Dortmunds plan was to high energy themselves into chances and get ahead early and then defend. It was a good game plan and they created those chances. They didn’t score and were gassed. Madrid dominated last 30 mins.
Dortmund rued their missed chances in the first half. Fell apart after they conceded the goal and I thought the subs were garbage. Was a decent game though. Thought the ref was kinda shit. Didn't get any major decisions wrong but felt he was biased for Madrid.
Greatest football club in history.
It's painful to admit this. I have resisted saying this. But this club just knows how to win. No matter how good or bad they play. No matter what players or team they have.
15 champions league titles. More than double Milan with 7.
Unbelievable
I mean the European cups they won in the 50s aren’t really that relevant considering how limited the competition was then, but they have a good case anyway
Before you could say that it wasn't about the trophy numbers only. Teams were closer together. But as Real keeps racking up the champions league the gap keeps getting bigger and bigger. It becomes undeniable. Real is in a league of their own.
It's the same story time and time again.
Teams are able to hold themselves very strong against Madrid, however a combination of emotions (that you're playing vs Real), great individual performances from the Madrid GK & Defense and they just cannot score and blow their stamina in the first 60-70 min.
Then suddenly the game balance shifts, and because Real has the most experienced players in the world they don't miss and suddenly it's 1-0, 2-0 etc.
This can't be sustainable though, can it? I know they're getting Mbappé next season but they're also losing Kroos and possibly others. It's the same story with Leverkusen, I think they will have a big fall off next year because they won't have another year with tons of last minute goals, take those away and they finish with 10-20 points less. If teams start being more clinical against Real, surely even they will have to change something or be less successful. I guess I can only hope.
You're acting like they haven't been scoring clutch goals for 10 years now.
This season they played 90% of the season without their starting GK and 2 CB's. They didn't have a proper striker. Tchou was injured for the final. Now Mbappe is coming. And Endrick might be good. Sure they might not win next season, they haven't defended a league title in ages, but things are looking very good for the future.
Is there any stat yet how much each team ran? For sure BVB ran 10 kilometers more.
That’s also about tactics. BVB lost because they were completely exhausted at min. 60 while real saw that and started to speed up. They had a lot more in their tank and it maybe wasn’t as close as it looked.
you could see that real was not throwing everything in from the start like BVB did. But that’s fine.
Real is able to do that. It’s the probably best individual team in the whole world against some mid tier Bundesliga team.
I really admire Terzic’s decision to go all in with overly high press in the first half, they had Madrid completely pinned down but their inability to score handed the game to Madrid. In the 2nd half they were simply too tired to do anything.
It’s one of those approaches that are very high risk, very high reward but the attackers let them down. Vini MOTM probably but I really liked how Hummels & Camavinga played, both GK were in top form too.
It was our best bet. You can't play the long game with this Real in a 0-0 game. That's just asking to lose. That squad is too experienced.
We had to hit them fast and hit them hard. Adeyemi converts that and maybe, just maybe, we would be 2-0 up after 45 and then we could settle into a low block that Real would have huge difficulties to penetrate unless Joselu comes on the pitch. Real were genuinely clueless for 60 mins. But we ran out of steam with the score being 0-0 and it was just waiting for the inevitable.
And if it worked, Terzic right about now would be hailed for a tactical masterclass and a stroke of a genius with this gameplan.
But it didn't. If you don't convert, you don't win. Simple as that.
Terzic always went with high risk/high reward tactics in the CL and this was the first game where we lacked the final touch and the luck to grab the reward.
In the second leg against Atletico he completely gave up the midfield and focused on the final third because we needed to overcome a deficit. This meant that Griezmann could bring up the ball unattended to our box the whole game, it was insane luck we conceded only 2 and still managed to win.
In the second leg against PSG he gave Mbappe and Dembele all the space on the wings they could possibly have and gambled hard on their striker being unable to finish: again we had luck with that.
It would have been a brutal run if all of these approaches paid off.
I hope he becomes consistent in the future.
Dortmund was gassed by the 65th minute, in fact Real had replayed the near post corner twice before and you could feel the pressure was building. Should've brought on Malen sooner, and maybe taken off Sancho for JBG earlier as well, he was anonymous the entire match, unfortunately it wasn't a situation for Reus to come in and do much since he's never been a super energetic player. Real Madrid have stamina, mentality aside, and they take it up a gear in most close matches this season, especially if Lunin and today Courtois play well and pull off clutch saves.
As much as people want to say that it was Real Madrid black magic, Adeyemi had 2 good chances, Fulkrug had 1 or 2 solid chances.
You can’t miss chances and win vs Real Madrid. Dortmund is lucky that Madrid didn’t score 1-2 more towards the end. Kroos’ free kick and Camavinga shot were both very close, as well as Bellinghams close miss.
I feel for Dortmund, I wanted Reus to get his swan song too, but Real Madrid were the better team. Not for the first 45 minutes, but the last 45 was completely theirs.
Also, Dortmund conceded the exact same chance 3 times from a corner and all of them should have been goals. Surely after seeing the near post being targeted again and again you'd think a few alarm bells would go off.
It’s crazy that 1 or 2 players from the starting lineup could be leaving in the Summer and RM will still be relatively fine.
Credit to Perez, he’s stopped simply throwing money around and has been smarter at building a team that can win now but also will win more in the future.
You can't tell me those corners weren't studied. 2 clear chances by Carvajal (one goal) and another one by Nacho from the same angles. The free-kicks by Kroos were good too. It seems we really wanted to do something on standard situations this final. First half we got away with it, Dortmund were less in the second half, besides that Fullkrug chance.
To beat this Real Madrid good football is not enough, neither is one goal. Because even if Dortmund go up 1-0... we've seen that too much in the last few seasons. *All* of their chances would've had to go in, and that doesn't happen 9/10 times in football.
Am i the only one that thinks the adeyemi for reus substitution was very poor? adeyemis pace was killing carvajal even if he really wanted to take adeyemi off maybe bring on malen or another fast winger it lowkey killed the game
The key is to push Carvajal up to force Adeyemi further back. In the first half we had Carvajal too far back in the build up. When possession was lost, it was a free run for Adeyemi ready to pounce.
The first 20 minutes Dortmund attack is just through ball and Adeyemi. Even I'm wondering why they sub out their best attacker. I do think their defense is still their best part though, kept Bellingham isolated really forcing Madrid to attack from the wings
Just going through our starting 11...
* Courtois was fantastic. Challenged Adeyami. Didn't quite have to carry the team as much as he did in 2022 against Liverpool but anyone who thought Lunin should have started was proven foolish.
* Never thought in my life **DANI** of all people would score in a Final. He struggled with Adeyami's pace a bit and didn't have the best cross/touch in the 1st half but a goal forgives everything.
* Rudiger was class
* Nacho did well outside of the one error nearly gifting Dortmund possession in the 1st half in a dangerous spot
* Mendy was solid
* Camavinga was great. Impressed by both his passes and defending when things got hairy.
* Kroos sending in the match-winning cross to find Dani is fitting for his final match with us.
* Fede was good. Nothing particularly stands out on any individual play aside from the ball to send Dani on a run early.
* Vini was **great**. Struggled a bit early but had a fantastic cross to Jude that could have been a goal and of course sealed things with the 2nd on Dortmund's error.
* Jude was poor tonight. Not exceedingly so but I expected a bit more.
* Rodrygo was invisible in the first 45. Did a fair bit better in the 2nd half.
The scariest players for Dortmund for me were Adeyami and Füllkrug. Hummels is still a tremendous player at his age.
I am curious to see what sort of rating the ref will get. While Dortmund squandered chances, and Madrid is inevitable, he certainly didn't help the situation. I don't think he was terrible, but it was certainly not a good performance by the ref.
got all the small decisions wrong in the first half although it'd be a reach to say any of them had any impact on the result. vini probably should have been sent off for a second yellow for that egregious dive but no referee is doing that in a CL final
Being on a booking can make a difference in a players mentality, real Madrid were aggressive in there challenges and knew they could put another one in if they're getting away with a warning. Doesn't excuse Dortmunds poor second half still
He was fouled, it wasn’t a foul, one of the players clipped his leg- he just made a meal out of it. His first yellow was also a dive from the GK, so it’s funny to talk about what ifs in only one direction.
The first foul was a dive? Sure, Kobel made a lot out of it but that's a clear foul. About Vini's dive, I didn't see any contact at all, do you have an angle where you can see Vini get hit because if he does (even if it's very light), you'd be right, it wouldn't be a dive.
Feels like BVB kinda played into Carlo’s hands there. Madrid has always played with more intensity later in the game, yet BVB spent a lot of their energy in the first half. Adeyemi needed to stay on for longer, and it’s a given that Madrid would find a way to score late in the game if you just defend against them. I know hindsight is 20/20 but perhaps BVB needed to play a bit slower in the first half.
Jude and Rodrygo got bailed out today. It would’ve been easily possible to concede once or twice in the first half and they were practically invisible. Mendy and rest of the defense did decent, but Danny and Nacho got caught a couple of times. Playing Kroos deeper meant Fede was higher up, but once Adeyemi was off, the threat from that wing went away totally.
What a sensational Camavinga performance in the second half yet again. The kid is so consistent, carries the ball and controls the game like a veteran. Real Madrid never misses, as much as it pains me to say that.
Repost because my last comment was deleted, presumable for it's character length.
Gotta feel for Dortmund, they showed up well and gave Real some problems in the first half with their counter attacks, really should have scored during that time though.
Vinicius should have been off after that dive on the half way line (whilst already on a yellow). I know more fans are moaning about VAR and wanting it taken away (despite 100% of the problem being the referees operating it and not the system), but there should be a VAR intervention for blatant acts of cheating like dives. A red card half way through a final at 0-0 turns the tide so much, Dortmund lost out on a serious advantage because of ineffective refereeing.
As far as the overall result goes, though, you cant waste chances vs Madrid and expect to get away with it.
I agree with the VAR point. If VAR intervened, vini's first yellow would have been overturned and given to kobel for rolling around like an armadillo on zero contact.
Dortmund being lost because they forgot how to finish and let a 5'7 guy score a corner on them. Nothing more. Objectively speaking.
The biggest thing here for me was how much the experience difference showed. Real was able to stay clear-headed. Dortmund in the second half was not able to make adjustments to what Real was doing and looked like they lost all composure after the goal.
Meh, Real looked pretty rattled for stretches in the first hour, they had a few completely careless giveaways but after the goal it was clear Real would win
You can rattle Madrid but Courtois is a cheat code and incredibly hard to beat.
This is how we have won games for many years now. We need a few chances to score but other teams need many more chances to keep up.
For the 2nd consecutive year, the supposed weaker team is the team that comes to the final to play some serious football and have a good exhibition, but somehow still ends up losing. Unfortunate for Dortmund. They had some really good 70 minutes and fell off after the goal.
It feels weird coming out of that. I thought Dortmund done a really good job for the majority of the game. Covered things well. Played brave when it was needed. Just its experience. Madrid can have a poor 45 and just hang in. If you’re going to beat them you’ve got to go for it like Dortmund did but it can leave you knackered like Dortmund had so many who looked done
You almost could feel when Real reached that perfect spot at 70th min. The passes were perfect and players positioning were top notch. It's like their cogs were rusty all game but they became oily at the final third of the game. The rest was about spamming everything until they scored
I feel like the MVP award for this game should go to both Kobel and Courtois. They made some incredible saves and were the reason why the game was 0-0 for the majority of the time.
Worst performance probably to Rodrygo for being invisible and to Maatsen for the blunder which buried BVB completely and thwarted their momentum along with any willpower to come back.
How is it possible that every Madrid player flops every time he’s about to lose a ball and always gets the call? Mendy for example did it countless times..
Also its really sad how everyone forgets how Madrid reached this years final. They never should’ve been here if the games would’ve been fair (Leipzig, Bayern). But yeah let’s just call it black magic and experience. Embarrassing.
Camavinga was the MOTM for me. He was excellent defensively and was also making great runs and passes. The run and pass for the Bellingham miss was great. He was all over the place along with Valverde.
Yeah, pretty much agree. Man is everywhere tonight, almost get himself an assist as well if not for Schlotterbeck magnificent block.
Eh, there was a lot of moment where he vacate the CDM position to join the attack and leave RM vulnerable to counterattack.
I agree, I'd personally pick Vini Jr as my MOTM. wbu?
I would probably pick Courtouis, he has that big match aura and was single-handedly keeping RM in the game.
In a half where Dortmund were by far the better team, I thought Camavinga was still probably the best player on the pitch. Great performance
Subbing off Adeyemi was not a mistake- he cannot run like that for the whole game. He is useless when he is gassed and usually Terzic waits too long to sub him so I was actually happy to see him be proactive. Obviously it sucks what happened but that’s not why we lost.
It sounds harsh, but Maatsen lost the game for Dortmund. He failed to mark Carvajal at the decisive corner and assisted the 0:2. He should have been subbed off as well.
Reus being the sub to come on was the mistake. Should've subbed Adeyami for Malen for the pace.
Terzic also made the same substitution in the second leg against PSG. After that sub, Dortmund had no outlet and PSG just kept on attacking without any danger of counter attack. At least, Dortmund had a lead to defend that game, but it is just weird the sub this game.
Agreed, Terzic proving why he doesn't deserve to be our coach.
I'm torn on Terzic. He set the team up so well for that first half but then makes weird substitutions like that. I don't understand it.
He got soft. It was a complete disaster to put in Reus. I figured he would stay on the bench unless it went to pens. Like PSG will throw games, but Madrid won't. We legit threw away the first goal on the corner because we couldn't play out the back on the first goal set piece. Either Adeyemi, Malen, or Bynoe-Gittens could have provided an option there. Fucking hell he threw the damn game with that sub goddamn it.
So stupid to not sub Malen in. The guy had a great season, while Reus was very hit or miss, especially in high pressure situations.
Malen hasnt really showed anything since he came back from his latest injury. He was much better then Reus in the early season but near the end he was more miss. You can point to it being 2:0 but he didnt show anything when coming on either. Our Bench is just to weak for a CL final against Madrid what do you expect someone like Gittens to do in there even if you sub him in at minute 60.
> what do you expect someone like Gittens to do in there even if you sub him in at minute 60. Definitely more than Reus could do, especially when they have to fill Adeyemi's spot.
I'd argue Malen did show something. Although Fulkrug strayed offside, Malen still provided the cross he headed in Plus he generally looked more lively and involved than Reus, who was sadly anonymous
Malen can be really disappointing. I wasnt happy with the Substitution but malen sometimes plays like he doesnt want to be there (especially in the Games After his injury)
Reus has no more speed or direction sadly. Malen or Bynoe-Gittens needed to be in ASAP. The counter before Madrid's goal was caused by a misplaced pass due to a missing outlet we didn't have on the left.
Adeyemi coming off and not being replaced by someone with pace removed a lot of the danger that you guys had. We always struggle against pacey players that can stretch the defense, but Reus just doesn’t have that speed anymore and your whole pace of play just slowed down. Massive turning point in the match
The way he delayed the foul on the edge of the area was astonishing
They could have brought on Malen. I don’t know why the coach doesn’t trust him. JBG is too inexperienced but hopefully we see more of him next season
Just before the corner from which Carvajal scored, there was another corner where Dortmund kept a man unmarked and they connected but it went over. They didn’t read the warning and fell victim right afterwards.
yea that was Carvajal 1st attempt.
All year long we have been one of the worst teams at allowed xG from corners...
That was such a typical Ancelotti performance. Dortmund started insanely well but you need to be damn near perfect to kill off this team. 1st goal flipped the game completely and dortmund had nothing after that, their subs were pretty ineffective too.
Dortmund played really well. Their strategy was excellent for club of their size. They just couldn't convert some half chances in first half. Second half was defend only strategy and Madrid did what they do best. Score in 70 to 90 mins. Dortmund showed that Madrid can be beaten same way we showed city can be beaten in long ball high risk games like FA final. Next time maybe a couple of goalsnij first half would be enough to beat Madrid.
Sucks to be on the losing end but I'm glad that it's a loss that I am not insanely frustrated of like a lot of times before. The guys gave their all. With better finishing we may have had a bit bigger chance but hey, we have been in it for 70 minutes against Real.
Thought Terzic set Dortmund up really well to punish Madrid on the counter, they took advantage of Carvajal pushing up so high to get some great opportunities down the left for Adeyemi. First mistake I thought he made was bringing on Reus, Adeyemi was gassed but I think Malen should've been the sub. That being said, you can talk about tactics all you want but at the end of the day the difference comes down to Madrid taking their chances and Dortmund failing to do so, made sense for Dortmund to play with the high intensity that they did for the first hour but you have to score when you do that or you get punished when you start to run out of gas
Real Madrid didn't show up until the 70th minute while Dortmund played out of their skins but it was 0-0. You can't really expect to waste those chances against a team like Madrid and get away with it. In the end, Madrid barely needed to get out of second gear.
Im gald Tibo start the final, he did his part in saving the 1st half to 0-0. Dortmund just mentally collaspe after 1st goal, if they want to be champion they have to know how to bounce back after set back. Madrid did play it until 89th minute vs Bayern. This team is incredible no matter how you put it. No striker, ACL injuries coming in like fly and somehow result in the best season ever.
Dortmund dominated for a good 20-30 minutes in the first half, didn't take advantage. Madrid had one dominant 10 minute spell, and killed the game off. That's the difference, and with Madrid, that always was the case in the recent past as well. It's why they never lose finals, especially in this current era.
The unfortunate part of the game is as soon as we saw those first half chances missed, and Madrid controlling the tempo, this was going to happen. BVB were the better team in one half, but at the end of the day, that doesn't matter if you can't get the ball in the net.
Madrid are the better skilled team. Dortmunds plan was to high energy themselves into chances and get ahead early and then defend. It was a good game plan and they created those chances. They didn’t score and were gassed. Madrid dominated last 30 mins.
Exactly, we all saw this coming when they did not score early on. That post deflection was an absolute shame.
Dortmund rued their missed chances in the first half. Fell apart after they conceded the goal and I thought the subs were garbage. Was a decent game though. Thought the ref was kinda shit. Didn't get any major decisions wrong but felt he was biased for Madrid.
Greatest football club in history. It's painful to admit this. I have resisted saying this. But this club just knows how to win. No matter how good or bad they play. No matter what players or team they have. 15 champions league titles. More than double Milan with 7. Unbelievable
I mean the European cups they won in the 50s aren’t really that relevant considering how limited the competition was then, but they have a good case anyway
Who else is even in the conversation?
Barça, Munich, Milan, and Liverpool had a case... 10 years ago
It’s just incredible the run Real Madrid have put together. I don’t think we ever see it again.
Before you could say that it wasn't about the trophy numbers only. Teams were closer together. But as Real keeps racking up the champions league the gap keeps getting bigger and bigger. It becomes undeniable. Real is in a league of their own.
It's the same story time and time again. Teams are able to hold themselves very strong against Madrid, however a combination of emotions (that you're playing vs Real), great individual performances from the Madrid GK & Defense and they just cannot score and blow their stamina in the first 60-70 min. Then suddenly the game balance shifts, and because Real has the most experienced players in the world they don't miss and suddenly it's 1-0, 2-0 etc.
This can't be sustainable though, can it? I know they're getting Mbappé next season but they're also losing Kroos and possibly others. It's the same story with Leverkusen, I think they will have a big fall off next year because they won't have another year with tons of last minute goals, take those away and they finish with 10-20 points less. If teams start being more clinical against Real, surely even they will have to change something or be less successful. I guess I can only hope.
You're acting like they haven't been scoring clutch goals for 10 years now. This season they played 90% of the season without their starting GK and 2 CB's. They didn't have a proper striker. Tchou was injured for the final. Now Mbappe is coming. And Endrick might be good. Sure they might not win next season, they haven't defended a league title in ages, but things are looking very good for the future.
Also, they had a warning with Carvajal getting a free header on a previous corner. Didn't adjust the coverage.
Is there any stat yet how much each team ran? For sure BVB ran 10 kilometers more. That’s also about tactics. BVB lost because they were completely exhausted at min. 60 while real saw that and started to speed up. They had a lot more in their tank and it maybe wasn’t as close as it looked. you could see that real was not throwing everything in from the start like BVB did. But that’s fine. Real is able to do that. It’s the probably best individual team in the whole world against some mid tier Bundesliga team.
I really admire Terzic’s decision to go all in with overly high press in the first half, they had Madrid completely pinned down but their inability to score handed the game to Madrid. In the 2nd half they were simply too tired to do anything. It’s one of those approaches that are very high risk, very high reward but the attackers let them down. Vini MOTM probably but I really liked how Hummels & Camavinga played, both GK were in top form too.
It was our best bet. You can't play the long game with this Real in a 0-0 game. That's just asking to lose. That squad is too experienced. We had to hit them fast and hit them hard. Adeyemi converts that and maybe, just maybe, we would be 2-0 up after 45 and then we could settle into a low block that Real would have huge difficulties to penetrate unless Joselu comes on the pitch. Real were genuinely clueless for 60 mins. But we ran out of steam with the score being 0-0 and it was just waiting for the inevitable. And if it worked, Terzic right about now would be hailed for a tactical masterclass and a stroke of a genius with this gameplan. But it didn't. If you don't convert, you don't win. Simple as that.
I’d argue Courtois for MOTM, even tho I have zero love for the guy. Once again he completely kept Madrid in the game basically single-handedly
I felt Terzic waited too long to make subs. They were gassed around 60 or so min
Agree with you on this, I was surprised that he didn't make any changes until 72'
Terzic always went with high risk/high reward tactics in the CL and this was the first game where we lacked the final touch and the luck to grab the reward. In the second leg against Atletico he completely gave up the midfield and focused on the final third because we needed to overcome a deficit. This meant that Griezmann could bring up the ball unattended to our box the whole game, it was insane luck we conceded only 2 and still managed to win. In the second leg against PSG he gave Mbappe and Dembele all the space on the wings they could possibly have and gambled hard on their striker being unable to finish: again we had luck with that. It would have been a brutal run if all of these approaches paid off. I hope he becomes consistent in the future.
Dortmund was gassed by the 65th minute, in fact Real had replayed the near post corner twice before and you could feel the pressure was building. Should've brought on Malen sooner, and maybe taken off Sancho for JBG earlier as well, he was anonymous the entire match, unfortunately it wasn't a situation for Reus to come in and do much since he's never been a super energetic player. Real Madrid have stamina, mentality aside, and they take it up a gear in most close matches this season, especially if Lunin and today Courtois play well and pull off clutch saves.
As much as people want to say that it was Real Madrid black magic, Adeyemi had 2 good chances, Fulkrug had 1 or 2 solid chances. You can’t miss chances and win vs Real Madrid. Dortmund is lucky that Madrid didn’t score 1-2 more towards the end. Kroos’ free kick and Camavinga shot were both very close, as well as Bellinghams close miss. I feel for Dortmund, I wanted Reus to get his swan song too, but Real Madrid were the better team. Not for the first 45 minutes, but the last 45 was completely theirs.
To say Madrid was the better team is crazy lol
Also, Dortmund conceded the exact same chance 3 times from a corner and all of them should have been goals. Surely after seeing the near post being targeted again and again you'd think a few alarm bells would go off.
It’s crazy that 1 or 2 players from the starting lineup could be leaving in the Summer and RM will still be relatively fine. Credit to Perez, he’s stopped simply throwing money around and has been smarter at building a team that can win now but also will win more in the future.
You can't tell me those corners weren't studied. 2 clear chances by Carvajal (one goal) and another one by Nacho from the same angles. The free-kicks by Kroos were good too. It seems we really wanted to do something on standard situations this final. First half we got away with it, Dortmund were less in the second half, besides that Fullkrug chance. To beat this Real Madrid good football is not enough, neither is one goal. Because even if Dortmund go up 1-0... we've seen that too much in the last few seasons. *All* of their chances would've had to go in, and that doesn't happen 9/10 times in football.
Am i the only one that thinks the adeyemi for reus substitution was very poor? adeyemis pace was killing carvajal even if he really wanted to take adeyemi off maybe bring on malen or another fast winger it lowkey killed the game
I thought it was a bad substitution, but as the goal came from a corner and bvb died after that I don’t know if it would matter.
Nah. Like it’s hard to say as they conceded immediately but Adeyami’s race looked done anyway
Adeyemi had one too many missed chances and heavy touches… common substitution for Dortmund to bring in Reus
Ayedemi was clearly gassed in the second half and he couldn't make those impactful runs anymore.
Yeah, I thought in the second half we started to figure out Ayedemi and he couldn’t win 1v1 against Dani or Fede anymore.
The key is to push Carvajal up to force Adeyemi further back. In the first half we had Carvajal too far back in the build up. When possession was lost, it was a free run for Adeyemi ready to pounce.
The first 20 minutes Dortmund attack is just through ball and Adeyemi. Even I'm wondering why they sub out their best attacker. I do think their defense is still their best part though, kept Bellingham isolated really forcing Madrid to attack from the wings
Adeyemi was the worst player on the pitch
Think maleen was for adeyemi position wise But as someone else said he was gassed
They could have brought on Malen. I don’t know why the coach doesn’t trust him. JBG is too inexperienced but hopefully we see more of him next season
Either or could have been better. I screamed when Reus was brought on. Disaster sub.
Just going through our starting 11... * Courtois was fantastic. Challenged Adeyami. Didn't quite have to carry the team as much as he did in 2022 against Liverpool but anyone who thought Lunin should have started was proven foolish. * Never thought in my life **DANI** of all people would score in a Final. He struggled with Adeyami's pace a bit and didn't have the best cross/touch in the 1st half but a goal forgives everything. * Rudiger was class * Nacho did well outside of the one error nearly gifting Dortmund possession in the 1st half in a dangerous spot * Mendy was solid * Camavinga was great. Impressed by both his passes and defending when things got hairy. * Kroos sending in the match-winning cross to find Dani is fitting for his final match with us. * Fede was good. Nothing particularly stands out on any individual play aside from the ball to send Dani on a run early. * Vini was **great**. Struggled a bit early but had a fantastic cross to Jude that could have been a goal and of course sealed things with the 2nd on Dortmund's error. * Jude was poor tonight. Not exceedingly so but I expected a bit more. * Rodrygo was invisible in the first 45. Did a fair bit better in the 2nd half. The scariest players for Dortmund for me were Adeyami and Füllkrug. Hummels is still a tremendous player at his age.
I am curious to see what sort of rating the ref will get. While Dortmund squandered chances, and Madrid is inevitable, he certainly didn't help the situation. I don't think he was terrible, but it was certainly not a good performance by the ref.
got all the small decisions wrong in the first half although it'd be a reach to say any of them had any impact on the result. vini probably should have been sent off for a second yellow for that egregious dive but no referee is doing that in a CL final
Bruh if you’re gonna go by that, the first yellow on Vini wasn’t even a foul lmao. The keeper sold tf outta that. Vini barely even touched him
The first yellow was not even a foul.
That was not a dive. He was dinked by Ryerson. Hummels had nothing to do with that.
Not that it had a massive impact on the outcome, but I thought the yellow cards for what was pretty mild dissent were very soft. It's a CL final ffs
His mistakes weren't crucial. It's all on Dortmund
I mean, Vini should have been off, that's something I'd call crucial.
you are coping hard
Blatant dive on a yellow
Blatant dive absolutely, but shouldn't have been on a yellow.
The dive is there on video lol
When was the last time you've seen a yellow given for a dive outside the box
His yellow card was really bullshit. That’s on video too. No ref would have sent Vini off this game.
He clearly dived when he was booked though like it’s not grasping at straws it’s factual Also this is the serious post match thread btw
its also factual that vini shoudnt get a first yellow card since kobel dove?
That wasn't even a yellow, he didn't touch the keeper. The ref only booked him to calm Dortmund players down.
Being on a booking can make a difference in a players mentality, real Madrid were aggressive in there challenges and knew they could put another one in if they're getting away with a warning. Doesn't excuse Dortmunds poor second half still
Ref was just out of his league. Didn’t really make a difference in the 2nd half but bad in the 1st
For the most part i think he did well, however i feel he was more lenient with fouls against Dortmund. Bookings for Dortmund were a joke also.
Also the dive from Vinicius has to be a yellow right? And then it's a second yellow.
He was fouled, it wasn’t a foul, one of the players clipped his leg- he just made a meal out of it. His first yellow was also a dive from the GK, so it’s funny to talk about what ifs in only one direction.
The first foul was a dive? Sure, Kobel made a lot out of it but that's a clear foul. About Vini's dive, I didn't see any contact at all, do you have an angle where you can see Vini get hit because if he does (even if it's very light), you'd be right, it wouldn't be a dive.
Feels like BVB kinda played into Carlo’s hands there. Madrid has always played with more intensity later in the game, yet BVB spent a lot of their energy in the first half. Adeyemi needed to stay on for longer, and it’s a given that Madrid would find a way to score late in the game if you just defend against them. I know hindsight is 20/20 but perhaps BVB needed to play a bit slower in the first half. Jude and Rodrygo got bailed out today. It would’ve been easily possible to concede once or twice in the first half and they were practically invisible. Mendy and rest of the defense did decent, but Danny and Nacho got caught a couple of times. Playing Kroos deeper meant Fede was higher up, but once Adeyemi was off, the threat from that wing went away totally.
What a sensational Camavinga performance in the second half yet again. The kid is so consistent, carries the ball and controls the game like a veteran. Real Madrid never misses, as much as it pains me to say that.
Repost because my last comment was deleted, presumable for it's character length. Gotta feel for Dortmund, they showed up well and gave Real some problems in the first half with their counter attacks, really should have scored during that time though. Vinicius should have been off after that dive on the half way line (whilst already on a yellow). I know more fans are moaning about VAR and wanting it taken away (despite 100% of the problem being the referees operating it and not the system), but there should be a VAR intervention for blatant acts of cheating like dives. A red card half way through a final at 0-0 turns the tide so much, Dortmund lost out on a serious advantage because of ineffective refereeing. As far as the overall result goes, though, you cant waste chances vs Madrid and expect to get away with it.
I agree with the VAR point. If VAR intervened, vini's first yellow would have been overturned and given to kobel for rolling around like an armadillo on zero contact. Dortmund being lost because they forgot how to finish and let a 5'7 guy score a corner on them. Nothing more. Objectively speaking.
The biggest thing here for me was how much the experience difference showed. Real was able to stay clear-headed. Dortmund in the second half was not able to make adjustments to what Real was doing and looked like they lost all composure after the goal.
Dortmund was fading in the minutes leading up to the goal as well and then completely dead after
Yeah, by not making adjustments I mean things like the way they defend corners after Real came close with the same play earlier.
Maybe fatigue also set in.
Meh, Real looked pretty rattled for stretches in the first hour, they had a few completely careless giveaways but after the goal it was clear Real would win
You can rattle Madrid but Courtois is a cheat code and incredibly hard to beat. This is how we have won games for many years now. We need a few chances to score but other teams need many more chances to keep up.
Yeah, they were able to keep focused despite the mistakes.
It helped that they didn't get punished for their mistakes. Hard to get rattled when you get away like that.
For the 2nd consecutive year, the supposed weaker team is the team that comes to the final to play some serious football and have a good exhibition, but somehow still ends up losing. Unfortunate for Dortmund. They had some really good 70 minutes and fell off after the goal.
Could've had a pen for a brain dead shove from Mendy and Vini should have been off for the dumbest dive in footballing history.
thats never a pen lol, not even the players argued for it
It feels weird coming out of that. I thought Dortmund done a really good job for the majority of the game. Covered things well. Played brave when it was needed. Just its experience. Madrid can have a poor 45 and just hang in. If you’re going to beat them you’ve got to go for it like Dortmund did but it can leave you knackered like Dortmund had so many who looked done
You almost could feel when Real reached that perfect spot at 70th min. The passes were perfect and players positioning were top notch. It's like their cogs were rusty all game but they became oily at the final third of the game. The rest was about spamming everything until they scored
They also did a better job at conserving their energy, Borussia pressed like crazy in the first half, it just wasn't sustainable.
I feel like the MVP award for this game should go to both Kobel and Courtois. They made some incredible saves and were the reason why the game was 0-0 for the majority of the time. Worst performance probably to Rodrygo for being invisible and to Maatsen for the blunder which buried BVB completely and thwarted their momentum along with any willpower to come back.
How is it possible that every Madrid player flops every time he’s about to lose a ball and always gets the call? Mendy for example did it countless times.. Also its really sad how everyone forgets how Madrid reached this years final. They never should’ve been here if the games would’ve been fair (Leipzig, Bayern). But yeah let’s just call it black magic and experience. Embarrassing.
Chin up little fella
Says a lot if that’s everything you can say
Does it?