The Daily Bee (April 7th, 2021): Jude Bellingham Reacts to ‘That Call’, and why Borussia Dortmund Fans Should Move on

Good morning, everyone.

I hope everybody is feeling at least slightly better this morning. I wasn’t able to watch most of yesterday’s match in the Champions League between Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City. But I was able to watch the highlights, and yes, that call was atrocious. It takes what was an otherwise respectable performance and turns it into a total robbery, and there’s nothing that my inner fan wants to do more than write a 600-word salt-filled rant about how the team was robbed, how UEFA should be disbanded, how the referee should be sent to a penal colony in Antarctica, et cetera. While the temptation to do so is strong, I think it would serve BVB fans to let it go.

This is because despite the referee’s decision, Borussia Dortmund had a chance to go back to Dortmund 1-1 on aggregate with an away goal, and another defensive lapse (and I blame Manuel Akanji more than Thomas Meunier) gave Manchester City the advantage instead, in the match’s dying minutes no less. The reason that BVB are out of contention for the Bundesliga’s top four and are on the ropes in the Champions League is once again because the squad cannot figure out how to defend a simple cross and cut-back inside the box.

While I don’t want to harp on the Ederson foul too much, I do want to touch on Jude Bellingham’s reaction. I can guarantee that no person in the world is more incensed about the decision than Jude. He was BVB’s man of the match by a wide margin, and he had a clear goal that was taken away. He looked absolutely inconsolable following Phil Foden’s goal that put Manchester City up 2-1,

For a 17-year-old to score a goal in the Champions League (and that’s what he did - he scored a goal) and to have it taken away by a refereeing decision has got to be utterly gut-wrenching. I know that when I was 17, there’s no way I wouldn’t have thrown in a few four-letter words in any post-match reaction, so this is a testament to Jude’s maturity.

Anyway, there’s going to more Champions League action today, with Bayern Munich facing Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea facing Porto. Maybe watching these games will help BVB fans take their minds off yesterday’s result.

The Daily Buzz

I don’t know, talk about anything other than the foul call.