Man of the Match Poll: Dortmund Survive Chaotic 120 Minutes Against Paderborn

Borussia Dortmund advanced to the quarter finals of the DFB Pokal with a 3-2 victory over SC Paderborn in extra-time. Lets just leave it at that shall we? BVB went up 2-0 early in the game, through goals from Emre Can and Jadon Sancho, and then some stuff happened and Haaland scored a third and Borussia won. You don’t really need to know anything else, do you? It was... *waves hands*... some football stuff. Don’t worry about it.

BVB had a perfect start, going 2-0 up inside the first 20 minutes, but they didn’t get control of the game, and Paderborn kept plugging away. Paderborn stuck to their plan and played some good football, even having a few good chances in the first half, but they were unable to find a breakthrough. It took until later in the second half for Paderborn to find their first goal, at which point all hell broke loose. Haaland scored to put Dortmund up 3-1, before it was ruled out and turned into a penalty for Paderborn. Dortmund went from 3-1 up to drawing 2-2 in a blink of an eye, and the game went to extra-time. It continued to be end-to-end chaos in extra-time, but Haaland’s goal gave BVB the advantage they needed, and they were just about able to hang out and go through to the next round.

Here’s the nominations for MOTM:

Marwin Hitz

Hitz made several crucial saves in the first half, with the scoreline sitting at 2-0, and he seemed to be on track for a man of the match performance and a clean sheet, until Paderborn’s Julian Justvan sent him the wrong way to pull a goal back. It looked like a bad mistake from Hitz, letting a relatively simple shot slip by him.

If Hitz hadn’t made the mistake for Paderborn’s first goal, he would have been the front runner for MOTM, but his error opened the door, eventually leading to extra time.

Thomas Delaney

After a brilliant display at the weekend, Delaney put in another solid effort, this time wearing the captain’s armband. Though he drifted out of the game a little bit towards the end, he was an important presence in a tough 120 minutes, working tirelessly throughout. Delaney even managed to contribute two assists, setting up Can for the opener, and then putting Haaland through for the winner.

Jadon Sancho

Photo by Friedemann Vogel - Pool/Getty Images

Sancho scored Dortmund’s second, with a lovely finish touching it underneath the the oncoming keeper. He easily could have finished the game with a hattrick, coming close on two separate occasions in the second half. In addition to his good work in front of goal, Sancho also created a number of good chances for his teammates.

He hobbled off in the second half of extra-time, but hopefully it was just cramp, or a bit of acting to waste time.

Erling Haaland

Haaland put the ball in the back of the net on two separate occasions, but had one of those goals ruled out. He had numerous chances to get another goal, and perhaps should have done better with one or two of them. Despite some questionable decision-making in front of goal, I thought Haaland deserved the nod here, because he also did a good job holding up the ball and creating opportunities for teammates, even picking up the assist for Sancho’s goal.

Another day, another victory. Never in doubt. Let us know your man of the match!