Manchester City 2-1 Borussia Dortmund: Talking points from Champions League defeat
By Adam Bakr
Two preventable goals give City the win
Considering how good Manchester City are going forward, Borussia Dortmund could not afford to make life any easier for them. Yet they did exactly that in the 18th minute.
Emre Can passed the ball straight to Riyad Mahrez, giving the ball away under very minimal pressure. From there, Manchester City had the chance to counter as Dortmund had numbers forward. Kevin De Bruyne beat Mahmoud Dahoud one on one, and from there the Dortmund back line was scrambling to get back into position.
Phil Foden slightly over hit his cross to Mahrez, and the chasing Borussia Dortmund defenders switched off for a moment. This left De Bruyne wide open on the edge of the six yard box to open the scoring on the cutback. For the players in position, Bernardo Silva’s run into the six yard box took their focus off of De Bruyne.
The second goal was less of an individual mistake, but still looked very avoidable. De Bruyne picked the ball up in midfield and Thomas Delaney chose to jockey him instead of pressing. For a midfielder who may have the best final ball in the world, this was far too much time to work with. De Bruyne played a perfect ball over the head of Thomas Meunier to former Borussia Dortmund player Ilkay Gundogan, and he laid it off to an open Foden, who scored the winner for City.
A few things could have gone better on this play. After misjudging the ball into the box, Meunier did not react quickly enough to cut off the pass to Foden. The decision to sub him in was also questionable, even if it was for a short amount of time. He was not helped by the absence of a defender or midfielder nearby, considering he had two forwards in his area. But the Belgian international’s positioning in the build-up was simply woeful.
On top of everything, the goal came on the cusp of stoppage time, just six minutes after Marco Reus had brought Borussia Dortmund level. Had they managed to hold on, Dortmund would have been ahead in the tie going into the second leg.