2018-19 UEFA Champions League Group Stage Matchday 3: Borussia Dortmund vs Atlético Madrid

Announcers really playing up AM near misses, it wasn't as close as that. DAZ missed header and Hakimi+Reus mix up were even better chances that weren't shut down by AM.

 

Atletico are getting pissed. I take it they don't react to losses with grace.
4:0 as the punishment for cvntish behavior.

 

The two halves played similarly. ATM better in the first 20 of each half, BVB hanging on with defensive effort. Then BVB killing them in the second half of each half.

 

Incredible night. The sort of night that will make the whole of Europe stand up and take note. Just fantastic.

Zagadou and Diallo went up against Costa and Griezeman.

Just incredible.

 

No Paco and no Akanji, this isn't even the best team. This was a very young squad, particularly on D where the wisdom is that experience is even more important. I want this squad to stay together for another year at least. CP, if you're listening, please extend...

You can bring either CP or Sancho from the bench? If JBL continues to get better or Philipp gets out of his rut?

 

Great win despite there being some luck involved, of course. Saul alone could have turned the game around. But either way, you don't see Atletico losing 4:0 often.

Hakimi is great. Sadly we know where such a development ends. Witsel deserves praise for giving us stability. I'd bet we don't win without him. It took me some time but apparently Götze was used as the "striker"/false 9 or whatever you want to call it and Reus behind him. Didn't matter though, we played without a real striker and both players were more important for their workload and helping out in defense.

 

I can't wait to see what happens in the next round. While yes its possib if we lose all three matches coming up but its improbable.

Very excited about the future and how much we dominated today without alcacer.

 

First place is definitely not guaranteed. First place helps a lot with the second round matchup though. If we have 9 points at this point we better aim for that first place.

Great game! We're building up to a Klopp era kind of entertaining football.

 

Although on overall underwhelming game compared to his peers, Gotze had a solid performance today despite playing the "false 9" role along with Reus which is not his natural position. His last couple of appearances have all been positive so hopefully it's a sign of things to come.

 

Not only he had a good performance but this was the most motivated, passionate and happy i've seen him on a football pitch since the 2014 WC Final.

 

Happy about Gotze and RG. Hope that both are in Favre's long term plans as they showed skill, devotion and quality against a tough opponent. Was rather skeptical at first about Witsel, but he provides us with the much needed stability. Moreover, he scores here and there. Really exited about Zagadou and Diallo - gratplay by them. With Akanji and Paco and the way we played today, things are looking bright.

 

Congrats on the solid distruction of Diego Simone and his boys last night.Favre seems like taking it even a notch higher than what he did at Gladbach
Great win for the Buli and German football too!

 

I have no idea how Lucien Favre is doing so well, how he is exceeding his ExpG and how he's keeping clean sheets with such young central defenders. Statistically, Burki is playing better now than he did under TT. We will see how this statistical anomaly continues.

We beat the 2nd best defence (as of the last 4 years) is Europe. Atletico hasn't been hammered this bad since 2011. And it's never happened under Diego Simeone.

We have a wage bill of €187M, 65M less than Bayern. If we get rid of Wolf, Schurrle, Rode, Toprak and Kagawa, we can easily manage to lure Hakimi to sign permanently. Also we need to keep Guerreiro. He's one of the most intelligent players we have. He's versatile, fast, has a wicked shot and an eye for goal.

 

Maybe add Toljan to that list ... I also heard Paco has last say on whether he signs or not ...

 

Marius Wolf is not a defender. He's a two way forward who doesn't have potential. With him and Delaney, we've basically upgraded on Großkreutz and Castro....... tremendously. But we don't need these kinds of players. Static squad players are expensive and useless to us. We need young players who are cheap and hold a lot of promise. This is why, I'd rather make mistakes like Milos Jojic, Emre Mor and Erik Durm than Toprak, Rode and Ramos.

 

I feel like Wolf would defend better than Raphael, who in turn certainly attacks better than Wolf...

 

I disagree with this somewhat. Delaney is no superstar, but he is solid and we know what you get. I am happy for him to remain as a squad player. We know we can partner Delaney with Witsel and win against most of the lower Bundesliga teams. You need that consistency to win the league.

I didn't see at the time and Durm certainly does not belong on the list, but too often the club have indulged unprofessional players like Mor, Dembele and to some extent Auba. It's good to have dedicated professionals.

 

I think he needs to mmmmn ame his intentions known. I'm not sure what he was offered to stay but honestly he needs better form to command high dollars right now..I think sometimes he fancies himself an EPL guy and frankly he us several years away from that. I hope he wises up soon.