Takeaways from Borussia Dortmund’s Champions League defeat to Lazio

Thomas Meunier’s disappointing start continues

While it is Thomas Meunier’s first season with Borussia Dortmund and settling in can take time, the signs have been very worrying as of late. He had another woeful game on Tuesday, as his weaknesses were exploited by Lazio. He was not the only Dortmund player who underperformed on the night, but his mistakes heavily dictated the result of the game.

The first goal came directly from his mistake. After getting the ball from Lukasz Piszczek close to the Dortmund box, he took far too long to make up his mind. By the time he passed the ball to Jude Bellingham, Lazio had fully closed in and scored just moments after winning the ball back.

He was later caught out of position trying to win the ball high up the field. This let Luis Alberto in behind him, who had time to find Joaquin Correa in behind Dortmund’s backline. Marwin Hitz made a good save on the breakaway, but the resulting corner resulted in Lazio’s second goal.

Meunier then had a golden opportunity to get his side back into the game. Haaland’s pass across the box found the Belgian international with an unblocked site at goal, with Thomas Strakosha out of position in net. He was unable to find the target, shooting well wide.

He did nearly get an assist with the side down 3-1. He ran onto Jadon Sancho’s through ball down the right wing and crossed it for Haaland. After sprinting to meet it, the striker could not get great contact on the ball, and his header was tipped over.

While Acraf Hakimi, the man Meunier is replacing, was not immune to being caught out defensively, you could almost always rely on him to come up with something offensively for the side. This was heavily shown last season when he was the side’s top scorer in the Champions League. So far Meunier has not been able to offer the side any more defensive stability and has come nowhere near his predecessor’s offensive output.