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Perhaps we should have known that Borussia Dortmund would make life more difficult. Two late goals from Youssef En-Nesyri, the second in injury time, gave Sevilla little hope of a remarkable resurrection. But finally it was Erling Braut Haaland’s boot that decided this tie, his two goals, to add a pair in the first leg, overturned a game that for long periods seemed to lean towards the visitors.
Is there anything safer in European football right now? Certainly, Haaland’s contributions were inevitable: the first came after a first half hour completely dominated by Sevilla, the second after a strange step in the game in which a goal was disallowed, he missed a penalty and still scored somehow. way.
“In four times we were superior in three,” said Sevilla coach Julen Lopetegui. “Haaland is extraordinary. He will define an era. “
But this is Haaland’s gift: a game breaker, a game changer, a one-man career. Indeed, perhaps the real point of difference between the teams was the contrast between Sevilla’s spasmodic goal threat, despite their dominance of possession, and Dortmund’s irresistible No.9.
Haaland did the damage in Seville three weeks ago and did it again on Tuesday: intimidating Sevilla with his brute force, evading them with his movement, subduing them with the aura that at age 20 already seems to have its own irresistible impetus.
Until their first goal, Sevilla had been in control, looking for good value for the two clear goals they needed to progress. The locals, for their part, were accomplices of the dance: passive and porous out of possession, indecisive and prone to making mistakes in it.
Tonally and tactically, it felt like a smooth continuation of their late collapse against Bayern Munich on Saturday, when they gave up an early 2-0 lead and lost 4-2.
At this point, Haaland was largely a spectator on his own stage. He had completed a pass. And yet, as he chased down another long, desperate kick to Dortmund’s right hand, a coiled, latent threat seemed to stir in him. Against all odds, he won the ball. Thomas Delaney burst into young French midfielder Jules Koundé with savage urgency; Mahmoud Dahoud slid a beautiful ball to Marco Reus, who cut for Haaland to shoot from close range. A deadly and devastating counterattack and Haaland’s ninth goal in this Champions League campaign.
Two minutes into the second half, Haaland had his second, dominating Fernando before driving the ball from a tight angle. Or so we think. The VAR annulled the goal for a push, after which the referee, Cuneyt Cakir, gave Dortmund a penalty for a previous foul.
Haaland stepped forward and hit a post. But as Sevilla leaped forward at halftime, the whistle sounded again: Yassine Bounou had drifted slightly off his line before the kick was launched. Haaland finished this time, taunting Bounou for having the recklessness to try to deny him a goal.
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Six minutes after putting the ball into the net for the first time, Dortmund settled safely into the last eight. Or so we think. En-Nesyri scored a goal from the penalty spot 22 minutes from time after a soft foul from Emre Can, before heading in one last consolation to shake Dortmund’s nerves.
Even as Dortmund advanced to the quarter-finals for the first time in four years, it was possible to sound a note of concern. Because while Edin Terzic’s team remains lethal on the fast break, he is alarmingly fragile on defense and injuries have left his team looking a bit uneven. But where Haaland is, there is hope.
