Trying to sum up what went on in Dortmund and Istanbul last night is a very difficult exercise, but here goes.
As glorious and dramatic a competition as the Champions League is, most of us were pretty sure that we’d never see a last few minutes to equal Manchester United’s famous victory in the 1999 final or a second half to rival Liverpool’s comeback against AC Milan in 2005. Then last night happened.
Unlike 1999 though, it was the Germans on the right side of a fairytale ending this time around and they, rightfully, certainly partied like it was 1999 afterwards. Like most dramatic comebacks, Borussia Dortmund enjoyed a helluva lot of luck when defeating Malaga at the Westfalenstadion last night; in fact, that would be downplaying it a little.
Yes, as Jurgen Klopp remarked in a hilarious interview afterwards, Malaga’s second goal was offside but that was a marginal call in comparison to Felipe Santana’s last-minute winner, when four players were offside in the build-up and Santana himself was offside when the ball fell to him on the line and he had the arduous task of knocking it in from an inch out.
Cue delirious scenes that didn’t appear possible when Eliseu put Malaga 2-1 up and seemingly into the semi-finals and in truth, Malaga would have been entirely deserving of their place in the last four had they made it through.
Not fancied to get anything against a Dortmund side previously irrepressible on home turf, Manuel Pellegrini’s side took to their task with gusto and taking advantage of their hosts, who seemed more than a little nervous, they deservedly took the lead through a tidy Joaquin effort after 25 minutes.
Belatedly, Dortmund woke up and responded with a goal of their own before half-time, the magnificence of which has unfortunately been overlooked given all the madness that occurred afterwards.
The exchange between Gotze and Reus was great, the flick from Reus to Lewandowski divine and the Polish striker played his part with a calm and accomplished finish; this was Dortmund at their very best.
The tie was delicately poised at half-time but it could have been a lot different had Joaquin converted two great headed chances either side of the break. The former Spanish international is a lot of things and played very well on the night but he’s not prolific and those missed chances will no doubt have haunted him a few times already today.
Thankfully for him, his own ‘keeper, Willy Caballero, was in inspired form and one save in particular from Mario Gotze seemed to send out a message that he was not going to be beaten again and Malaga were destined to go through, a message reinforced when Eliseu put them ahead shortly afterwards.
Eliseu can be grateful the officials were having an off night because Julio Baptista’s shot was going in before he made sure from an offside position, but unfortunately for Malaga, it was by far from the worst cock-up made by the officials on the night.
As time ticked past the 90-minute mark, Reus equalised with a scrappy goal and then Santana won it with an even scrappier one and the manner of the victory makes you think that the Gods might just be smiling upon the Germans this season.
Malaga should be through but they’re not; you really can never write off those Germans.
On any other night, the game in Istanbul would have been the centre of attention such was the crazy nature of the second half but Ronaldo, Drogba, Sneijder and company had to play second fiddle to the other quarter-final on the night.
As it turns out, all three players scored in a pretty crazy game; the Galatsaray duo doing so during a pretty mental 15-minute period in the second half when it seemed as if the Turkish side would pull off a result that would easily rank as the greatest comeback in Champions League history.
They scored three goals during that period and all of them, from Emmanuel Eboue’s thunderbolt to Sneijder’s classy finish to Drogba’s brilliant flick, were utterly brilliant.
If Fatih Terim’s men had played like that at the start they would have been in with a shout but unfortunately it came too late and came after Cristiano Ronaldo had put Real in front with a tap-in early on to try and quench the spirit of the very loud home support.
Real looked like increasing that lead numerous times thereafter but their clinical instinct was lacking and their players and fans would be lying if they said they weren’t worried when Drogba scored a second goal in three minutes to put Galatasaray within two goals of going through with 20 minutes still left to play.
At that stage – despite Drogba having another goal ruled out for offside – Real did what they should have done a lot earlier and chipped away at the hosts’ momentum, which came to a shuddering halt when Ronaldo scored his and Real’s second in injury-time.
Galatasaray deserve credit for fighting back but when you examine the tie as a whole, Real were in control for the majority of it and despite the alarming manner of their second half-collapse, it’s still going to take a very good team to stop them from winning the competition.
Hell, on this form, it’s going to take a hell of a team to stop Ronaldo alone.
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