Paco Alcacer wins it for Dortmund, 4-3, Over Augsburg

Seriously, what even was that?

Dortmund were down, then level, then down again, then level again, then leading, then they were level again, and then Paco Alcácer pulled a golazo out of his ass and won Dortmund the match 4-3.

My hands are still shaking and my head is still buzzing from that match, specifically the second half.

Augsburg were awarded a free kick in a dangerous area outside the box, and Dortmund was punished with the opening goal courtesy of Alfred Finnbogason. I couldn’t pinpoint any one Dortmund player to blame, so I’m blaming everyone. Bürki should’ve never let that through his five-hole, the defending should’ve never let all those Augsburg players run free, and the official should’ve blown the whistle for a foul on Reus. But it is what it is, and Dortmund would go into halftime trailing 1-0.

Enter the second half and after the first ten minutes, Alcácer comes on the field for Philipp and the game immediately turns. In the 61st minute, Axel Witsel lays off an absurdly perfect long ball for Jadon Sancho, which the Englishman crossed for Alcácer’s easiest goal of the day.

Unfortunately, the backline of Hakimi-Akanji-Zagadou-Diallo decided to have a collectively poor performance and Philipp Max but Augsburg back in front off a Finnbogason shot that may have been mishit, but regardless Dortmund were right back where they started.

In the 79th minute, Dortmund were awarded a free kick and, with Augsburg napping, Hakimi smartly laid it off for Alcácer and the Barcelona loanee tucked it home off the near post to tie it up once again.

With momentum behind BVB and the Westfalenstadion absolutely rocking, Dortmund sunk what looked to be the dagger into Augsburg when Hakimi notched his second assist to a perfectly-positioned Mario Götze, and German international banged in what looked-to-be the game winner.

But, poor set piece defending reared its ugly head again as Michael Gregoritsch headed in a well-placed corner kick four minutes later to tie the game back up.

Despite Dortmund pouring on the pressure and attacking with wreckless abandon, it looked like this would end with a disappointing draw. Hakimi received a boot to the face in the dying moments of added time, and Dortmund were awarded a free kick outside the box. With the last kick of the game, what happened next was simply sublime…

4-3 Dortmund, our Spanish god Alcácer getting his hat-trick to win the match. Jaws dropped everywhere, both good and bad, and Dortmund leads the Bundesliga entering the international break. Incredible, simply incredible!

Paco NEEDS to start, it’s not even up for discussion anymore. I know Philipp isn’t a natural forward, so it’s apples-to-oranges, but Paco is a bonafide scoring option that gives this offense another dimension to score. Seriously, the second he comes on and this team looks infinitely more dangerous than with Philipp in that spot.

Zorc, Watzke, I know you guys read this blog, so pay that €20 million for Alcácer already. You’ll thank me later.

The international break comes at a good time for Favre and Dortmund, as it’s clear they need a lot of work on set piece defending. Both set-piece goals could have, and should have, been properly dealt with today, but our backline picked this game to have a collective brain-fart.

Holy crap, I need to go lay down.