Champions League Recap; Dortmund Capitulate to FC Barcelona

Well that was horrid.

BVB fell 3-1 to Barcelona away today in the UEFA Champions league. We are now not in control of our fate for getting into the knockout stage of the UCL. The Barca goals were from Messi, Suarez and Greizmann. The BVB goal from Jadon Sancho.

The first half went just as well as you’d expect with this BVB squad. We totally capitulated from the get go. Favre’s game plan was just not conducive to dealing with a team as strong as Barca. Aside from an early chance from Nico we were helpless all half. The first goal came from Suzarez easily getting past a sleeping backline and putting it past Roman Burki. He had a previous goal disallowed and BVB wouldn’t get lucky twice. The second Barca goal came from Mats Hummles placing a masterful pass right to Leo Messi who finished the German centerbacks effort flawlessly. The half ended 2-0 after a stretch of weak possession from BVB.

The second half went mostly just as poor as the first. Favre tried to rectify his game plan by subbing Sancho on for Nico but nothing could save a team who gave up on their manager. Antoine Griezemann made it 3-0 and after that BVB didn’t even look like they were playing. Sancho tried to get the squad back in the game with a masterclass effort to get on on the score sheet but it was not enough to deter the Catalan giants. Sancho has been sluggish for BVB recently but not this game. As the game winded down he came close to getting a second but was denied by Ter Stergen.

Overall this was a statement game from the players. They no longer want to play for Lucien Favre. The lineup and game plan today was a miserable show and the opposite of what fans have come to expect from BVB. Nico Schulz was quite awful aside from his early chance. Julian Weigl is a shell of his former self and should probably be sold this summer. There was a time when Weigl was talked about as the first $100 million midfielder but we’d be lucky to get a 1/5th of that for him now. Reus was absent all game. If not for photographic evidence you could convince me he wasn’t on.

All in all, a awful game from BVB. We now look to be in Europa League this winter. Hopefully Favre will be sacked before I write the preview for Berlin. If not Jurgen Klinsmann is our only hope.