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Heavy was above the Dortmund expedition, as the team left the Camp Nou after the 1: 3 at FC Barcelona. Lucien Favre, the coach, spoke slowly and little recently, the press conference took only four minutes: "It's very difficult to play here," he said, and in general: "This is a very difficult group."
It is difficult to progress to the round of 16 of the Champions League for BVB in fact now. Because the direct duel with Inter Milan was lost in spite of the brilliant 3: 2 three weeks ago (0: 2 in the first leg) and both clubs tied, Dortmund against Slavia Prague has to create a better result than Inter against Barça. But the Catalans are already group winners and are heading to Milan in a series of heavy league games, they are likely to spin, perhaps Lionel Messi will take a break, and they are struggling to win somewhere, anyway. So it could be the Europa League, but maybe it does not matter at the moment, in which competition the BVB plays. Maybe he just has to learn again to be a top team.
It is the team of a club with one of the higher budgets in European football and the recently communicated claim to play the title in the Bundesliga. Experienced representatives of such a team should after a chance evening actually not like Mats Hummels say that such a defeat "can happen in Barcelona already". Or that "nothing happened, for which we have to be ashamed". While that might not be completely wrong, it left a depressing impression: that the Borussians were almost happy because it did not get any worse.
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Messi's 700th Barça game: Gifts from BVBOf course, Messi was once again Messi, but otherwise the FC Barcelona currently has not much to do with the miracle team of yore, the German opponents at Camp Nou often broke down into every single line. The current Barça struggles from game to game, the reviews are harsh. "This team has not one of the characteristics of the best teams in the club's history and can not compare to Europe's most respectable teams": Spain's largest daily "El País" did not analyze Borussia Dortmund before the match. But the FC Barcelona.
Against this Barcelona Dortmund did not appear in any phase during his first Camp Nou visit in this millennium, as if it would believe in only one chance. Unlike Inter, who dominated here with aggressive counter-football a halftime, before Messi and Luis Suárez the game just so turned to 2: 1. Unlike Slavia, who made a not unmerciful draw with a consistent team effort - 0: 0. Both opponents brought with them what Dortmund lacked: attitude, personality and a coherent idea of what they wanted to do. In a BVB with four defenders in the field and the most dangerous player, Jadon Sancho, initially only on the bench, this was not apparent.
Too many crises for a top club
Anyone who still had the European ever-competitive BVB of Jürgen Klopp or Thomas Tuchel in mind, could only wonder. Dortmund has become a strangely amorphous team. Undefined, unstable. Last season, she won her Champions League group ahead of Atlético Madrid, then lost in the knockout stages twice against Tottenham. But already in Klopp's last year they were partly on the last place in the table. Since then, too many coach, player and strategy changes (youngsters, veterans) seem to increase the rashes. There seems to be a lack of conviction beyond the results, a strong idea, a bottom underfoot, which would also carry through crisis situations into which the team surprisingly often slips as unusually fast, at least for a top club.
Dortmund did not have to be ashamed on Wednesday, but it gave Barcelona the first simple Champions League evening of the season. Messi strolled so relaxed on the square after the 2: 0, that he used his selective interventions mainly to a rehab program for Antoine Griezmann. The Frenchman had admitted before the match his problems with the colleague and a low self-confidence. Now he was moved by Messi until he finally shot the 3: 0. That the BVB then determined the game, came to a consolation by Sancho and in the final minutes still to a batting hit by the Englishman, was also significantly due to the invitation of the opponent. "They then switched back a gear," goalkeeper Roman Bürki acknowledged.
Maybe the appealing finish is still enough for a not so bad feeling before the game on Saturday at Hertha BSC with the new coach Jürgen Klinsmann, the much-vaunted job finale for Favre. "The turnaround in the Bundesliga," now wants manager Michael Zorc. But if you put things in perspective after the long-awaited and then so little heroic trip to Barcelona, then Borussia Dortmund is probably more than just a boom.
FC Barcelona - Borussia Dortmund 3: 1 (2: 0)
1: 0 Suárez (29)
2: 0 Messi (32nd)
3: 0 Griezmann (67)
3: 1 Sancho (77.)
Barcelona: ter Stegen - Roberto, Umtiti, Lenglet, Firpo - Rakitic (78th Vidal), Busquets, de Jong - Messi, Suárez (90th + 1 Wagué), Dembélé (26th Griezmann)
BVB: Bürki - Piszczek (76th Zagadou), Akanji, Hummels, Guerreiro - Weigl (85th idol), Witsel - Hakimi, Brandt, Schulz (46th Sancho) - Reus
Referee: Turpin (France)
Yellow cards: Messi, Busquets - Guerreiro
Spectators: 90,071
