Atlético Madrid were the favourites to beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1. In the end, they were worried about the result

The Champions League quarter-finals offered us a duel between Atlético Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. The home team was the favourite and they were slightly the better team in the match. Theywill take a one-goal lead to Germany after a 2-1 win.

Atlético Madrid reached the quarter-finals against Inter Milan after they managed to advance via penalty kicks. Dortmund didn’t have it so exciting, first drawing with PSV and then going on to secure a 2-0 win at home.

The first chance of the match came in the 4th minute and it was the opening goal. Argentine Rodrigo de Paul made his mark on the statsheet when he cleared the ball behind Swiss Gregor Kobel.

The home side Atlético raced to victory and Jose Gimenez was not far away from increasing the lead in the 20th minute. However, he failed to direct his header and had a lot to answer for.

But after half an hour of play, the home team scored for the second time. The lucky one was Samuel Lino, who easily cleared the ball to the right post. Late in the first half, Jadon Sancho tried to reduce the deficit, but his shot went just wide of the bar.

Atlético fulfilled their objective and went into the second half with a no-goal tactic and kept the promising result going into the return leg. Borussia, on the other hand, had to work harder, as they certainly didn’t want to close the two-goal gap at home.

The second half was sparse on goals, with Julian Brandt having the first major chance in the 73rd minute, heading just wide from a direct kick. Two minutes later the home side’s Lino scored, but he was not accurate either.

Just when it seemed that goalkeeper Jan Oblak would keep a clean sheet, he scored for the first time. Sebastien Haller beat him with an accurate shot to give the German team hope of a draw.

Jamie Bynoe-Gittens almost gave his team that a few minutes after Haller’s shot, and his shot hit the bar after a run. Dortmund thus leave Madrid with a 1:2 defeat and must win in the rematch to take the match at least into extra time.

Source: Champions League