Borussia Dortmund 3-2 Inter Milan: Five talking points from Champions League thriller
By Tushar Bahl
The Pressing Works
The biggest change in Dortmund’s second half against Inter was the instant switch to an intense high press. Lucien Favre doesn’t typically use a high press, that has been a tool that made Klopp and Tuchel so effective with Dortmund but Favre prefers to sit back and somewhat soak up pressure to win the ball back. From there Dortmund have a chance to counter or retain possession.
This was not the case in the second 45 minutes. Dortmund suffocated Inter to the point of them seemingly not being able to make three consecutive passes for a stretch of 30 minutes. It was a vicious cycle of Dortmund attack, chance created, Inter getting a stop only for Dortmund to instantly create a turnover and jump into another attack. It was amazing and refreshing to see Dortmund go back to something that has worked for them so often in the past and see it have the same results now.
This was the key to Dortmund’s win, yes they were the better team but it was their intense pressure creating turnovers in the second half that got them the 3 points.