views
Dortmund: Borussia Dortmund beat Shakhtar Donetsk 3-0 to reach the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday for the first time in 15 years.
Felipe Santana scored in the 31st minute, Mario Goetze in the 37th and Jakub Blaszczykovski in the 59th to complete the victory that sent the German champion through 5-2 on aggregate. Dortmund won the competition in 1997 and was ousted in the semi-finals one season later.
The Champions League is Dortmund's only chance to win a trophy this season. Dortmund achieved the domestic double last season but were eliminated from the German Cup by Bayern Munich and were 17 points behind the Bavarian side in the Bundesliga.
"We played an incredible game, we were strong from the opening minute," Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp said. "We relaxed a little in the second half but it was to be expected."
Dortmund were without central defender Mats Hummels, down with the flu. But his replacement Santana got Dortmund rolling with the first goal. Hummels scored the late equalizer in the first leg in Ukraine. Santana rose above Yaroslav Rakitskiy to head in Mario Goetze's corner. Razvan Rat was on the line but the shot went over his head.
Only six minutes later, Robert Lewandowski broke through on the right and sent in a perfect low cross that Goetze knocked in.
"We had a lot of desire tonight," Goetze said. Lewandowski, Dortmund's top scorer, missed chances before and after Dortmund's two goals in the first half. Shakhtar came close to scoring in the final minute of the half, when Fernandinho tested Roman Weidenfeller with an angled shot and the Dortmund goalkeeper tipped it over.
Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu sent in Douglas Costa at the start of the second half and the speedy midfielder gave a lift to his team. He made a threatening run from his own half, sprinting past two Dortmund players before Weidenfeller thwarted his attempt.
Costa then narrowly missed the target with a low shot across the goal. The match was settled with Blaszczykowski's goal in the 59th. The midfielder fed Ilkay Guendogan, who shot from the edge of the penalty area. Shakhtar goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov caught the ball but fumbled it and Blaszczykowski put it into the net.
Both sides wasted some late chances. "We controlled the game, we were very concentrated," said Dortmund captain Sebastian Kehl, who came on in the second half despite a rib injury.
Comments
0 comment