Borussia Dortmund overtook Real Madrid at Wembley during the first 45 minutes of the UEFA Champions League grand final, but lacked the most important thing: opening the scoring. Instead, he turned Thibaut Courtois into a figure.
The match, which has a live broadcast on Star+ (only for South America), began close, with the Spanish team dominating possession and trying – in vain – to get close to Gregor Kobel, but as the minutes passed, Edin’s pupils Terzić took him to his comfort zone, and ended up rounding off a seamless initial stage: They did not suffer in their goal and had several chances to break the zero.
Particularly between 21 and 28 minutes, the German cast had three clear situations. But Karim Adeyemi collided on a couple of occasions with Courtois, who accompanied him well after the forward received a great pass from Mats Hummels and then avoided the fall of his fence in a one-on-one finish, while Niclas Füllkrug He hit the post after another clearance leaked in the Aurinegra offensive.
After half an hour of play, the protagonist was Marcel Sabitzer, key in Terzić’s scheme, but his shot from outside the area also met with a great reaction from the Belgian goalkeeper, who is saving only his fifth game this season after the serious injuries he suffered in the last year.
Beyond the scoring opportunities – BVB had 8 shots, 3 on goal, against 2 total and deflected by Madrid, and surpassed them in xG by 1.68 against 0.09 -, Dortmund was far superior to the 14-time European champion. Firm in defense on both sides, Vini and Rodrygo did not bother him, while Jude Bellingham, who seeks to comply with the former’s law, did not matter. The entire German defense was very solid during the first half.
And their arrivals at the rival goal were due, in large part, to the speed of the team to come out against it as a block and the millimeter deep passes in attack (3 between minutes 21 and 28, when in the entire UCL they had 1). Although Carlo Ancelotti’s team dominated possession (64-36) and accumulated many more passes (345-192), this was somewhat dull, and the fifth in the Bundesliga, who have just eliminated Paris Saint-Germain, They found their current rival in a bad position, who looked very uncomfortable, without finding answers, several times.
But the goal was missing, and the match at Wembley was completely open.
In the 12 previous games of this edition of the Champions League, only once had Merengue finished the first half without shots on goal (March 6 vs. RB Leipzig, ended 1-1), but the tone of the Orejona finals It seems to be this: 8 of the last 9 went to halftime without goals, Kai Havertz’s goal in the 2021 Chelsea-Manchester City being the exception.
