Daily Bee: Champions League Drama is Starting Early This Year

Hello everybody! While everyone in the Borussia Dortmund sphere is still recovering from our loss to Werder Bremen, I am recovering from my birthday weekend where I spent the entire time at the beach roasting s’mores or exploring Los Angeles. It was an excellent time to sleep in and not watch Dortmund.

To keep our feeble minds distracted, I figured we could take a look at the first half of the final Champions League qualifiers that took place this week. Let’s be honest, it is much more fun to laugh at other teams’ misery than our own.

Benfica 3-0 (5-0) Dynamo Kyiv

Unfortunate circumstances for this game as Dynamo Kyiv lost the earlier ‘home’ leg away from home in Poland due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That being said, Benfica finished business in Lisbon and are set to join Porto and Sporting as the big three Portuguese clubs make the group stage. Former Dortmund player, Julian Weigl, played 20 minutes for Benfica in this game and it will remain to be seen if he is sold before the group stage starts after he was linked abroad.

Viktoria Plzen 2-1 (2-1) Qarabag FK

This heavyweight matchup between the seventh-place team in the Czech league and the third-place team in the Azerbaijani league saw the Czech hosts complete a comeback victory to qualify for Champions League. In this match, Jan Klimet came off the bench for Viktoria at halftime, scored the winning goal in the 73rd minute, and was subbed off a minute later. I have no idea why he was subbed off but I would like to believe it was for celebrating too hard.

FK Crvena Zvezda 2-2 (4-5) Maccabi Haifa

What’s worse than conceding a 95th-minute goal to a guy that played at Millwall last season? Conceding a terrible 93rd-minute own goal to get knocked out of the Champions League. That’s exactly what happened to Serbian side Red Star Belgrade as they lost on aggregate to Israeli side Maccabi Haifa. Milan Pavkov, who was subbed on in the 78th minute, deflected a cross perfectly into his own net to lose the game in front of his home fans. Quite possibly one of the worst own goals I have seen at such a crucial moment.

Today’s Matches

Dinamo Zagreb host Bodø/Glimt. 0-1 on aggregate.

PSV Eindhoven host Rangers Glasgow. 2-2 on aggregate.

Trabzonspor host FC København. 1-2 on aggregate.

The Links

• In much more relevant news, talks of Meunier’s exit continue and now a potential swap deal with Barcelona for Sergiño Dest is being discussed. (Sport)
• Former Borussia Dortmund star Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang could be making his return to London but this time, for Chelsea FC. The striker has spent the past 6 months at FC Barcelona but looks set to reunite with Thomas Tuchel in the Premier League. (Fabrizio Romano)
• We lost 3-2 against Bremen at home after they scored 3 goals in 5 minutes.

The Daily Buzz

What is the worst/most important own goal you have seen? Feel three-two let me know in the comments!