Memorable moments: one of the best games of LM or Dortmund’s turnaround against Málaga

One of the best matches of the Champions League knockout stage took place on 9 April 2013. Borussia Dortmund magically turned the quarter-final tie with Málaga around and advanced to the semi-finals of the most prestigious competition.

Memorable Moments is a special project by Ruik that commemorates the most iconic moments that have happened in football. Today we look back at Borussia Dortmund’s turnaround.

The first leg in Spain ended in a goalless draw and there was no indication that we would see such a wild spectacle in the return leg.

Dortmund had a packed squad with players like Lewandowski, Reus, Götze, Blasczykowski and Gündogan, while Málaga brought the now legendary Spanish footballer Joaquín, Golden Boy Award winner Isco, Toulalan, Baptisa and Demichelis.

Borussia was a big favourite in the home game, but Málaga did not come to Signal Iduna Park to give up. In the 26th minute, Joaquín struck from outside the box with his left foot, hitting the bar and sending the visitors into the lead.

Six minutes before half-time, however, Reus sent Lewandowski on with a deft cross, who rounded the goalkeeper to level the scores.

As the away goals rule was still in force at that point, Málaga were advancing as it was and Borussia needed to score one more goal. They pressed all through the second half but could not clear the ball into the net.

And so disaster struck. In the 82nd minute, Isco sent Julio Baptista into the box and his shot was headed into the net by Eliseu, giving Málaga a 2-1 lead. At that point, things were looking very bad for Borussia as they needed to score two goals with eight minutes to go.

The 90th minute passed, the referee showed four minutes of stoppage time and the vast majority of fans in the stadium stopped believing. However, in the first minute of stoppage time, a ball kicked into the box fell to Subotic, his bid was not yet taken up by Felipe Santana, but Marco Reus tapped the ball into the net to give some hope.

Signal Iduna Park was driving Borussia for the winning goal and it came very soon. Just a minute after the equalizer, Lewandowski sent a centre into the box from the left, it bounced to Reus who fired it back into the fire and after a bit of a messy situation, stopper Santana pushed the ball into the net at 91:54.

The stadium erupted in a huge euphoria. The players and fans couldn’t believe what had just happened. Dortmund had risen from the dead and advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League.

“My assistants and I were looking at each other in the booth and we were in shock. We were like, ‘This is crazy. I’ve never felt better than at this moment,” Borussia coach Jürgen Klopp said after the game.

Source: UEFA, Youtube