Europa League Match Recap: Borussia Dortmund Beats Atalanta on Aggregate To Advance to Round of 16

Borussia Dortmund are on to the round of 16 in the UEFA Europa League. After two matches against Italian side Atalanta, BVB won 4-3 on aggregate after today's 1-1 tie. The BVB goal came from Marcel Schmelzer.

The first half did not go well for BVB. We did not create any real chances all half. Any chance we did have was offside from the start. The Atalanta goal came from a set piece that Roman Burki was not able to control as it swung into the box and was tapped in by Rafeal Toloi. Gotze looked dangerous but that was about all that can be called positive from BVB in the half.

The second half went better for Dortmund, but not by much. While we did get the winning goal in the second half we still played poorly. Our chance creation was non-existent until Marco Reus came on for Christian Pulisic. Pulisic has struggled a lot recently and this game was no different.

Batshuayi also was absent until Reus came on and gave him a few good chances. Our goal was a hectic one, which is to be expected from a high stakes game played in the pouring rain. Reus laid a shot off that rebounded back off the goalkeeper. Batshuayi almost got his foot on the ball and impeded the goalkeepers vision as he knocked the ball away. The ball then landed nicely for Marcel Schmelzer who knocked the shot in cleanly. The rest of the game was just BVB holding on for dear life as Atalanta had a few chances.

All in all not the prettiest game from BVB, We lacked creativity and our defence looked to be in shambles yet again. While Burki let up the major goal he did make some big saves to at least keep us in it.

Marco Reus was the difference maker today. Almost no chances looked good until he came on the field. It is good to have our captain back.

Who was your man of the match?