Real Madrid 5-2 Borussia Dortmund: Three Takeaways from collapse at the Bernabeu

It was a tale of two halves

As Charles Dickens wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” and that’s fitting far too often in football. Nuri Sahin entered this match with a gameplan, which BVB executed remarkably well. In addition to the two goals, BVB managed five shots on target to Madrid’s one, produced more than double Madrid’s interceptions, and won over triple the number of tackles. Those are the statistics of a team that dominates, and the fact it was against Real Madrid is even more impressive. In the first-half, there wasn’t a BVB player who looked out of place. 

The second-half had less favourable statistics. Real Madrid managed nine shots on target to Dortmund’s two, while BVB faced an onslaught of attack. There’s one key moment however, that seems to have triggered the collapse. It was Sahin’s decision to substitute Waldemar Anton into the game for Jamie Gittens. I understand the idea of removing an attacking player for a defensive one in these circumstances, but Sahin also sent Anton onto the pitch with instructions for a system change. Five minutes later, Real Madrid had leveled the game. 

The original system wasn’t as defensively minded as I assume Sahin wanted, but those changes should have been articulated or made at half-time. Forcing Süle and Schlotterbeck into a back three when they were defending so well before is a bit frustrating, especially when we’ve seen the team struggle with a back three, even with both Julian Ryerson and Ramy Bensebaini as wing-backs.

However, after a stint of chaos where BVB conceded twice, there was some semblance of stability, but that was lost with the introduction of Emre Can.