Dortmund has reached round of 16 of the Champions League

The Champions League remains Borussia Dortmund as a consolation. The district giant, who caught badly in the Bundesliga, has easily moved into the round of 16 of the premier class, but once again showed the current uncertainty in the bleak 0-0 against Sporting Lisbon. Striker Serhou Guirassy awarded, among other things, a penalty (59th).

The Dortmunders won the playoff first leg in Portugal last week 3-0 at the completely harmless leader. On Friday, BVB will be drawn to either the OSC Lille or Aston Villa as an opponent for the round of 16. This also seems feasible despite the current situation of the troubled Bundesliga elevator. Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich are also among the last 16 teams as German representatives.

Before the game, coach Niko Kovac had announced that he would strengthen the shaped self -confidence of his professionals and primarily want to talk about their strengths. “The head makes your legs tired or difficult. We have to see that the head is free and light,” said the new BVB coach right before the game at DAZN.

So some of the recently so disappointing players received another chance despite the two defeats in the first two league games under Kovac. Among other things, Marcel Sabitzer also stayed in the starting eleven. It was also the Austrian who set a first sign with a rich shot after 27 minutes. Sporting keeper Rui Silva had to save with a glossy act.

Dortmund played quite and was clearly game -determining. However, many chances could not be avoided. Lisbon was also extremely harmless and the game was therefore quite low.

At the second half, Kovac apparently had enough of the young star Jamie Gitten’s, which seemed very weak and listless. The Englishman had to go down during the break, for him Maximilian Beier came. The Dortmunders remained supervised, but mostly acted harmless. The uncertainty of the latest Bundesliga events played continuously.

How the nervous costume is ordered was shown after almost an hour when Guirassy missed a penalty pit. The execution of the attacker who could catch Silva came up with a back pass. The sporting goalkeeper had previously got Karim Adeyemi off his legs. Shortly afterwards, Guirassy also had to go down.

The BVB still had significantly more possession, but the last train to the goal was missing. In general, the entire game seemed pomadigy and tempo arm. Despite the progress, Kovac should still have a lot of work ahead of him. The 53-year-old had currently only referred to the Champions League as the icing on the cake.

For the time being, the appearance in the league is crucial for Kovac. There, a victory against Union Berlin is mandatory there on Saturday in order not to make a new participation in the Champions League completely unlikely. The Westphalia is currently eight points behind fourth place.