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"It's unbelievable that he's only 17 years old:" Pep Guardiola on Jude Bellingham (r.)
Photo:
FREDERIC SCHEIDEMANN / POOL / EPA
When Edin Terzic yells player names from the sidelines, which he does very often, it doesn't necessarily have to be meant as criticism.
The coach of Borussia Dortmund called the first name of Jude Bellingham the most frequently in the empty Westfalenstadion, and the Englishman again showed an outstanding performance in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Terzic helped with the orientation from outside, but Bellingham usually makes a surprising number of good decisions even without commands.
The young man's performance was so striking that the opponent's coach later seemed to be taken with it.
"It's unbelievable he's only 17 years old," City coach Pep Guardiola said of Bellingham.
“Maybe he's a liar.
He's so good, a fantastic player. ”But at the end of the second leg it should only be enough for BVB to draw 2-1 against Manchester City.
BVB dreamed of reaching the semi-finals for 40 minutes - mainly thanks to Bellingham.
He hit with a flick to the early 1-0 lead (15th minute), which would have been enough as the end result to advance.
But above all, Bellingham was omnipresent.
He started, he postponed, he ran regardless of fatigue, he fought courageous duels and with a rescue act shortly before the goal line (32nd) was one of the reasons that City's immense pressure did not equalize before the break.
“The only thing we don't know about Bellingham is his limit,” Terzic said.
Bellingham is the new leader of the young Dortmund guard, which with Erling Haaland, 20, Ansgar Knauff, 19, and Mateu Morey, 21, had three other U21 players in the starting line-up and was reinforced by substitute Giovanni Reyna, 18.
As in the first leg (1: 2), BVB demanded everything from the big favorites Manchester City.
After the 180 minutes it is also clear: Guardiola's team was better, it will now meet Bayern conqueror Paris Saint-Germain in the semifinals.
Haaland have been without a goal for seven games
After a strong initial phase, in which Borussia had longer periods of ball possession and was also rewarded in the result by Bellingham's goal, Guardiola made a little change and so began a long period of suffering for the hosts.
Driven by Kevin De Bruyne, who initiated attack after attack, City pulled on the usual game that could only be defended with a lot of leg work.
The pressure also increased as the counterattacks became less frequent and Haaland did not shoot on goal in the first half.
"We have minimized his influence," Guardiola said.
"Our plan was to give Haaland the ball as infrequently as possible and keep it far from our penalty area." The striker has now, including the international matches with Norway, not scored a goal in seven games.
The ambitious Haaland suffers particularly in such phases.
"It won't be long before he meets again," Terzic is sure.
Does the penalty kick the game over?
However, Dortmund also suffered because, as in the first leg, they felt disadvantaged by the referee.
A week ago, a goal from Bellingham had not been recognized.
This time Carlos del Cerro Grande decided after a rescue act by Emre Can on hand penalty, which Riyad Mahrez converted (55th).
Can beheaded himself on the upper arm, which is not a criminal offense according to the latest interpretation of the rules.
"I don't understand," said Terzic, who claims to have seen no illegal handball.
"City was lucky, especially in these two scenes."
It is possible that the video assistant did not change the decision because the contact with the head was minimal and therefore there was no clearly wrong decision.
For Sky expert Dietmar Hamann, the penalty kick was a "scandalous decision" that threw BVB out of step and decided the game.
On the other hand, City had become stronger and stronger and it would have been difficult to imagine how Dortmund would have survived 35 more minutes without conceding a goal when the game was developing.
The old hands make the mistakes
Unlike Bellingham or Mahmoud Dahoud, Can is one of the personal losers in this quarter-finals.
In the first leg it was his blatant playing error that gave Manchester the 1-0 lead.
Now the penalty, which - justified or not - could have been avoided with a different arm position in a duel.
At the age of 27, Can is a leading player who has shown consistently good performances for weeks.
In the future, however, he must remedy such errors.
The young team must be able to rely on the veterans.
BVB has room for improvement in the goalkeeper position.
Similar to Can, Marwin Hitz showed a good game over long periods, both on the line and in the build-up game as a pass for the two central defenders Mats Hummels and Manuel Akanji.
When Phil Foden (75th) scored, Hitz, 33, had to put up with the accusation of not having covered the short corner consistently enough.
The Swiss is a solid goalkeeper who seldom saves his team points and occasionally makes mistakes.
All in all, it was too much suffering to knock out a team like Manchester City.
