As we all know our first ever clash with Monaco in the quarter-finals two seasons ago was marred by a murder attempt on our squad, and the piece of shit responsible is thankfully rotting in jail. I can only sum up the way UEFA handled the situation with the following statement: Fvck UEFA and fvck Watzke for acquiescing to their wishes with no consideration whatsoever for the state of our players. Monaco took advantage of the situation by undesevervedly walking all over a BVB squad that was still in shock from the incident. That's in the past now. All that matters is that we take all six points from them. I've noticed many of you have posted in other threads that you'd be fine with 4 points from Monaco. Are you fvcking kidding me? Have any of you even bothered following Monaco this season? They have been piss-poor, so much so that I've almost fallen asleep watching their games. Seriously, anything less than all six points vs THIS Monaco side would be downright embarassing.
Ask Bayern about being a favorite and only getting one point. Thing is , this is a marathon and not a sprint. I have heard so many say that anything less than 6 is an embarassment. It in fact is not. We get 4 from them and combine that with the 3 we got, then we only have to likely win one of 3 matches to get through between Brugge and Madrid which would give us a chance to rest players if need be at times if we were to be comfortable in our lead. People are so finite in their opinion of what has to happen. But the problem is that we travel and distance are always factors in these types of events. I think so long as we can at the VERY LEAST get at least one point, then we are not in any danger. Fact of the matter is, anyone anywhere and anytime can pull off an upsetting result. Bayern vs Ajax, Milan vs Tott, Lyon vs ManCity, Real Madrid today.. No one is immune and least of all nor are we immune to a bad result. They just need to bring the same energy we had for the last 30 minutes we had this past week and we will be good. If we dont, then we could see ourselves fighting for a draw or a result.
Bürki LP Akanji Zagadou Diallo Witsel Delaney Wolf Reus Sancho Alcacer Schmelzer, Pulisic and Kagawa are out with injuries. LP for Hakimi is debatable given the performances this season but maybe it's also a rotation issue. A chance for LP and Wolf to prove themselves (again) as they have disappointed so far. I'm not sure I like the continuation of the Diallo at LB experiment when Guerreiro is on the bench. I suppose Guerreiro isn't trusted defensively and he wouldn't have gotten much support from Sancho.
Deposits how bad Monaco have been in Ligue 1 they have quality players. The lineup is too conservative and we are inviting them on to us. Our left hand side is being exposed because Sancho is terrible defensively and does not even try and fight. Whilst LP is LP. The midfield though is the big problem. Only passing the ball backwards. Just count how many times Witsel and Delanye will pass stewards when there is a forward pass available.
Zagadou lost the ball twice there but it wasn't his fault. The midfield are just giving him no options. Dahoud needs to be brought on as soon as possible. Weigl for Witsel would help too.
Wrong team selection again at the start . He makes the right subs , but usually correcting obvious mistakes . Far too risk averse , we have been lucky in a few games getting a result after wrong selection but can’t last
Yes we were lucky today again. He needs to correct it and quickly. LP was is a legend and was once very good, but he is just a liability now. Nobody has been particularly great, but Sancho/Reus/Paco have been decent. The defence and Burki were decent. Witsel and Delaney should not be playing and they are the biggest problem. Wolf is not good enough either, but probably deserved his shot. Hopefully Favre learns from the Leverkusen mistake this match.
I personally I am going to give Favre the benefit of the doubt. He has learnt what it means to be Dortmund manager in the league. Hopefully this game teaches him what it means to be Dortmund manager in the CL.
By no means am I saying Favre should be fired or anything, and I'd understand the reasoning if it were in Monaco, but at home you need to go for the win.
Delaneys waste of space again, lp shouldnt play when we have hakimi available, wolf had one chance and invisible besides that
Penalty for us. Great movement by Reus. Alcacer only hits the bar. But Monaco is opening up and offering more space.
Overall solid win. Favre's subs sparked the team from the stagnant first half. And Monaco sort of collapsed after the first goal.
Reus with the 3:0. Assist by Bruun Larsen. Although he scored the important first goal, he was rather unlucky for the rest of the game.
A very good result and the attacking players did themselves proud, but I am worried the fantastic ending will make Favre trust the midifeld again. Monaco were playing quite well until the goal. When you are on a bad run off form it can kill your confidence. They collapsed after the goal. Larsen with another goal and assist. He is productive even when he makes other mistakes.
A common theme this season. After the Leverkusen game it was mentioned that we had scored more goals thanks to the involvement of subs than in the whole previous season (10 goals already this season in comparison to a surprisingly low 5). Sancho and Alcacer skew that result, of course.