The Yellow and Black will have seen all the colors.
This Wednesday, Borussia Dortmund has received a Manchester City in bulldozer mode since the start of the year, in the quarter-final second leg of the Champions League (9 p.m.).
At least, bulldozer until last month.
The Citizens have lined up 21 wins before a misstep in the derby against Manchester United (0-2) on March 7.
Rebelote last Saturday against Leeds (1-2), yet outnumbered throughout the second period.
Just before, Dortmund also competed at the Etihad Stadium, cracking in the 90th minute on a goal from Phil Foden (2-1).
Pep Guardiola's men have acquired a status of favorite which is not so obvious against the German club.
The slight decline in the English regime is surprising.
The situation in which Dortmund finds itself borders on a miracle.
"2-1 is a trick score"
Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne
Runner-up to Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga last season, Dortmund took on the role of attractive outsider at the dawn of the 2020-21 season.
The nugget that Europe is snatching up, Erling Haaland, is here.
Jadon Sancho, courted all summer by Manchester United, stayed.
No departure and small reinforcements, such as the right side of PSG at the end of the contract, Thomas Meunier, or the prodigious English midfielder from Birmingham, Jude Bellingham (17).
Former OGC Nice coach Lucien Favre had good tools at his disposal.
The game was not flamboyant, the results correct.
And it is a mini-series of bad results that will serve as a pretext for his surprise dismissal on December 13: a home defeat against Cologne, relegation (1-2) and a much heavier against Stuttgart (1-5 ).
"We are struggling to cross a course", analyzed the president of Dortmund, Hans-Joachim Watzke, who spoke of saving a "season very threatened because of the recent bad dynamics of the team".
All Bayern-Dortmund goals on March 6 (4-2)
Dortmund have a 50% chance of eliminating City
Threats, it hovers precisely over the workforce of the Yellow and Black.
Not a day goes by without a swelling transfer rumor about Erling Haaland.
"We have a very clear plan to start next season with Erling," said sporting director Michael Zorc on Monday in the columns of
ARD-Sportschau
magazine
.
Jadon Sancho, he started the season out of form and still with Manchester United in his ear.
Before injuring himself in early March on the eve of a shock against Bayern (4-2 defeat), thus missing the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Appointed provisionally and then confirmed for the rest of the season, Edin Terzic has not really relaunched Dortmund.
The club has stagnated in 5th place since taking office, seven points from a top 4 that would qualify for the C1.
Finishing out of the top 4?
This has not happened to Borussia for five years, and only once in the last 10 seasons, proof that the 2020-21 financial year is worrying.
Better to take advantage of the current Champions League, where the Schwarzgelben shine much more.
And that is not paradoxical.
"The problem with the knockout phase is that it is based more on chance than a 38-day championship"
Thomas Müller, Bayern Munich midfielder and former Pep Guardiola player
Carried by a colossal Haaland involved in all goals against Sevilla (2-3, 2-2), Dortmund sweated to pass the stage of the knockout stages, a first for four years.
The stake sublimated a team which got rid of the possession of the ball, to which it is (too) used in the Bundesliga, and let loose on a counterattack.
Against Manchester City, she stood up.
“2-1 is a trick score,” warned Kevin De Bruyne after the game.
He's right: on the European stage, 50% of the teams that lost the first leg 2-1 away have qualified.
"For the qualification, we have all our chances", positively the defender of Dortmund, Mats Hummels.
His rival and Bayern Munich player Thomas Müller, coached by Pep Guardiola between 2013 and 2016, thinks he knows why.
"A team with Guardiola is always a team cut to win the Champions League, he analyzed for the
Times
.
But the problem with the knockout stage is that there are only two matches.
It is based more on chance than a 38-day championship. "
For the German, no one competes with the Spanish coach when it comes to facing small teams.
But the Champions League tells a different story.
That of Citizens who collapsed no later than last year against Lyon in the quarter-finals (1-3).
And who must, like last week, keep their cages untouched against the fierce Haaland.
Club and selection combined, the Norwegian remains on 5 matches without scoring, unheard of in ... his entire young career, which can benefit from a boost this Wednesday evening.
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