The first leg of the Borussia Dortmund-Paris Saint-Germain Champions League semi-final will be held in Germany on Wednesday from 21:00. Will Dortmund, who are undefeated in their last 10 CL matches at home, or the Parisians, who produced a huge performance against Barcelona, move closer to the final in London?
The Borussia Dortmund-Paris Saint-Germain BL semi-final will be broadcast live on M4 Sport and m4spot.hu on Wednesday from 21:00.
After the Bayern Munich-Real Madrid (2-2) Champions League tie, the other semi-final comes: the one-time winner Borussia Dortmund will host PSG, who will play in the final for the first time and so far the last time in 2020.
In Munich, neither team’s lead lasted: Bayern and Real Madrid head into the second leg with a draw
The two teams already met in the group stage, then PSG won 2-0 in Paris, while the match ended in a 1-1 draw in Dortmund. At the second meeting anyway Dortmund, who would have already progressed at that time, could have knocked the Parisians out of the BL with a win, However, after a 1-0 lead, Warren Zaire-Emery equalized and the French went ahead of Milan and Newcastle in second place.
It will soon become clear whether this will pay off for Dortmund…
Salih Özcan and Warren Zaire-Emery, who scored the goal that allowed PSG to advance, at the meeting between the two teams in December (Photo: EPA/Christopher Neundorf)
DORTMUND WOULD CONTINUE ITS DOMESTIC UNDEFEATED STRIKE
The recent history against PSG does not show a very positive picture, however, the advantage of the home field can really mean a lot to BVB in the first act of the duel. Dortmund are currently on a 10-match unbeaten streak in the BL at Signal Iduna Park – but he lost only three of the last 20 domestic BL matches.
Nevertheless, Dortmund cannot be said to be performing exceptionally well in the Champions League this season: as Henrik Hegedűs also spoke about in the In the last broadcast of the Club of Championsthe German team actually “only” performs very well in one indicator, and that is the exploitation of situations.
According to Henrik Hegedűs, Dortmund stands out from the BL field in a single indicator, the exploitation of situations
By the way, there is another indicator in which Dortmund is at the forefront, but they are hardly proud of it: that choose according to its statistics, their expected number of goals conceded (xGA) is 1.8, which is the highest among the 16 teams that survived the group stage. This means that, based on the quality of the shots on goal, they should have conceded 18 goals in their 10 BL matches of the season, but in reality they only conceded 8 – thanks to luck on the one hand, and to their repeatedly excellent goalkeeper, Gregor Kobel, on the other.
After the already mentioned group victory, Dortmund’s path to the semi-finals led through PSV and Atlético Madrid: the Dutch lost 2-0 at home after a 1-1 away draw, and the Spanish lost 2-1 away Sanchó’s defeated them 4-2 at home.
Edin Terzice’s joy at the second leg against Atlético Madrid (Photo: EPA/FRIEDEMANN VOGEL)
“In the group stage, in the home match against PSG, we saw a significantly different game than away from home. It was a very open game in which we came a little closer to winning. The Parisians are in top form at the moment, and we have to surpass our performance then. We are confident that we will show that we have improved in the period since then” – He told Edin Terzic, the head coach of BVB at the press conference before the match.
The 41-year-old German-Croatian specialist also said that it will of course not be easy to stop PSG and its biggest star, Kylian Mbappé.
“The goal of every team is to stop Mbappé, but it doesn’t always work out. We have to be prepared for everything. Fortunately, we have already experienced a lot, we have overcome difficult opponents and reached this point. We must not overthink things, we must trust ourselves. We have a plan to hurt them. In any case, it’s sure to be two close matches.”
Jadon Sancho will also play a major role against PSG (Photo: EPA/Christopher Neundorf)
By the way, Dortmund did not go well in the main test: on Saturday, they lost 4-1 at the home of RB Leipzig, their direct rival for the start of the Champions League, so with three rounds before the end of the championship, the fourth-placed Leipzig increased their advantage over Dortmund to five points.
However, it is good news for the black and yellows that there is a good chance that they will still be able to start in the BL next season, as next to the Italians – ahead of the English – the Germans will certainly have the second extra place based on the teams’ overall results.
Italy can certainly field five teams in the Champions League this fall
Not only Atalanta, Italian football also won big with the elimination of Liverpool.
Sébastien Haller, who is struggling with an ankle injury, will almost certainly be missing from the team, but it is good news for the Dortmund fans that Mats Hummels, who was replaced at the beginning of the second half of the match in Leipzig, will certainly be available – and the routine center back will certainly have an important role for Mbappé or the former Dortmund player Led by Ousmane Dembélé in stopping the Paris attack.
Kylian Mbappé is tied with Harry Kane for the top scorer in the Champions League (Photo: EPA/Alejandro Garcia)
THE CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE IS ALREADY IN THE POCKET, BUT THE ESSENCE IS ONLY NOW COMING
If there’s one thing the Parisians don’t lack right now, it’s self-confidence, since they managed to secure the French league title over the weekend – admittedly, not by their own strength. PSG could have celebrated already on Saturday night, but Le Havre, who were escaping relegation – led by Loic Nego, who scored an assist with a corner and then won a penalty – almost won at the Parc des Princes, but Goncalo Ramos made it 3-3 in the 94th minute. saved the match. With this, the Negós postponed the championship, but only for about 24 hours, as Monaco lost in Lyon, so the advantage of the Parisians is already mathematically unattainable with three rounds before the end of the championship.
PSG has thus already collected two of the possible four (Super Cup and the championship), and has already reached the final of the French Cup, so there is every chance that it will end the season with as many as four cups by winning the coveted BL trophy.
You know this Luis Enrique also, according to whom they have to deal with this enormous pressure.
“Since I’ve been here, I’ve felt the support of the players and the club. We are constantly improving and this is still just the beginning. There is a month left in the season and we still have a chance to finish with four cups. Because of this, we have to manage our emotions and the pressure that comes with it properly” – cites UEFA’s official website mentions the Spanish coach of the Parisians, who singled out Vitinha: according to him, the Portuguese national team player is having an amazing season and currently considers him one of the best midfielders in the world.
After his success with Barcelona in 2015, Enrique will not be in any company if he wins the Champions League with PSG. He can be the sixth after Ottmar Hitzfeld (Dortmund, Bayern Munich), José Mourinho (Porto, Inter), Jupp Heynckes (Real Madrid, Bayern Munich), Carlo Ancelotti (AC Milan, Real Madrid) and Pep Guardiola (Barcelona, Manchester City) a coach who leads two different clubs to the final victory in the most prestigious European cup series.
After Barca, Luis Enrique would also lead PSG to a CL victory (Photo: EPA/Alejandro Garcia)
In addition to winning the 12th league title, the Parisian team can also draw strength from its performance in the elimination phase of the BL, which has bid farewell to two Spanish rivals so far. First, Real Sociedad with a double win (at home 2-0, then away 2-1), and then Barcelona after huge excitement: after a 3-2 defeat at home, away – from a 1-0 deficit, it’s true playing with a man advantage – Mbappé won 4-1, so they could continue their performance.
And the goal cannot be any other than to reach the BL final for the second time after 2020 (and, of course, win it this time): just like now, four years ago, the road led through a German opponent, albeit at a neutral venue due to the coronavirus epidemic. , reaching the final against RB Leipzig was decided in one match.
A more difficult task awaits the Parisians against Dortmund, it is enough to mention that they will have to play in front of approximately 80,000 German fans in the first leg of the semi-final.
The Borussia Dortmund-Paris Saint-Germain BL semi-final will be broadcast live on M4 Sport and m4spot.hu on Wednesday from 21:00.
CHAMPIONS’ LEAGUE
PRELIMINARY, FIRST MATCH
Wednesday, May 1
21.00: Borussia Dortmund (German)–Paris Saint-Germain (French) (LIVE: M4 Sport, m4sport.hu)
They played on Tuesday
Bayern Munich (Germany)-Real Madrid (Spain) 2-2
The second leg of the BVB-PSG duel will be held on May 7, and the second leg of the Bayern-Real duel will be held on May 8.
Cover image: Jadon Sancho and Kylian Mbappe (Photo: EPA/Christopher Neundorf and EPA/Alejandro Garcia)
