Man of the Match Poll: Zenit St Petersburg 1-2 Borussia Dortmund

It is done! Borussia Dortmund may have flirted with 2nd place, but they finish 1st in Group F in the Champions League, giving themselves the best possible shot at making a run in the knockout stages of the competition. In true BVB fashion, they looked incredibly poor in the first half, even going down 1-0 to an unfortunate deflection from a Sebastián Driussi shot, but goals from the unlikely duo of Lukasz Piszczek and Axel Witsel turned things around for Borussia in the second half. While BVB were doing their bit to claim their place at the top of the group, Club Brugge were also making significant contributions, drawing level against Lazio, despite being a man down and playing away from home. It wasn’t especially pretty, and the final minutes were pretty nervy, but BVB top their group and will be drawn against one of the teams that finish runners up in their respective groups.

It was another game of two halves, as has become typical for BVB lately. The first half was utterly dire, with maybe one or two performances that gave us something to be positive about, but Borussia picked things up in the second half, and gradually began to wear Zenit down. The Piszczek goal was scrappy, and the Witsel goal was so unexpected that it took me about 5 seconds to realize it had hit the back of the net. But a win is a win. Perhaps this can build some much needed momentum.

There were few truly man of the match quality performances, but there were a few standout players, at least. One or two of these nominations may be making up the numbers though... Let us know by voting, and giving your thoughts in the comments.