The Athletic analyzes why the German team's exit in the tournament final has become a saint for neutral fans.
After the draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League, a schedule appeared in social networks, which showed the food that was already brewing a lot of fates.
The Champions League has become boring?
Since 2006, one of the largest teams wins the main European tournament. Over the last 10 years, Real Madrid won five times, and Liverpool, Bayern, Chelsea and Barcelona won once each, and all of these teams had won the tournament before and often lost to the final round.. For the Manchester City, who could not cross the line in Europe, regardless of those who, perhaps, are the best team in the world since another fate, Pep Guardioli’s robots, putting an end to any suspicions of the Champions League blasphemy, having won the trophy last season.
In this way, the history of the highest echelon of European football has reached its dramatic conclusion.
At the quarter-final stage, four of the top five European leagues were represented: three from Spain, two from England, two from Germany and one from France.. The remaining 10 candidates, including Liverpool and Chelsea, did not reach this stage, having not qualified for the tournament.
You can tell that at this stage there is no place for a unique fairy tale, but we all love to root for the underdogs.
This is one of many reasons why Borussia's exit from the Champions League final was a miraculous result of the season.
PSG – Borussia Dortmund. In front of Garazd, this does not mean that the stench was not there before. This is more similar to those that Jose Mourinho brought to Porto before victory in 2004, after victory in the UEFA Cup in 2003, but not to Greece’s victory at the European Championship. Dortmund are regular participants in the Champions League playoffs and won the tournament in 1997, and then reached the final again in 2013. With the eight teams reaching the quarter-finals, most UK bookmakers rate their chances of winning as the lowest of the year. And since the outsider is going to win the famous “great wins”, he can play the rest of the river if he can earn it.
According to Michael Cox of The Athletic, the great tournament may need two speeches to overcome the underdog. First of all, the outsiders themselves may be the worst, but in another way, the great teams may be the weaker. It’s not surprising that Dortmund is in the lowest level in the last five years.
After a strong campaign last season, during which they lost the title of champion for the rest of the day, Dortmund sold their star player Jude Bellingham to Real Madrid, and, it seems, there is no other young player of his caliber. bi yogo replace. Dortmund are making an important showing in the championship, sitting in fifth place in the table, 15 points ahead of Eintracht Frankfurt, which we are heading for..
Finally, the fifth-place champions' performance against Bayern in Lysa will be enough to get them through to the main European tournament of the coming season, but their domestic performances this season are unlikely to call them perekonlivimi. The hours of superstars at Rura are over.
Another point in Michael's article - about those who are strong are to blame for their weaknesses - rings true. Real Madrid is a titan in the remaining stages of the Champions League, having successfully won the La Liga title, but is still in a transitional stage. Without a high-flying striker, Bellingham often plays at the forefront of attack for Carlo Ancelotti's team, and his early goal turn on the cob of fate was spent the rest of the time. Lutsi Modric, the sole holder of the Golden Ball, which currently plays in Europe, has 38 years of age, and does not often appear at the start.
Madrid have an atmosphere of certainty in this tournament, but their game against Sita in the quarter-finals, where they took 33 shots and a series of post-match penalties, demonstrated that they are no longer as bad as they were in the era three prevailed on choli (literally and figuratively).
Bayern is the rich “big brother” of Dortmund in German football, but they lost their first championship title in 11 years to Bayer Leverkusen, and their head coach Thomas Tuchel abandons the team at the end of the season. Try to admit in your place Unai Emeri and Ralf Rangnick also experienced failures.
For the patients of Dortmund, who are one of the worst in Europe, they said that many of their best citizens left the Westfalenstadion for Munich in the end, although they may have to pay a fee to avoid it.. This is true of Marco Reus, one of the most fortunate figures in modern football, who was lost in Dortmund while his star teammates were winning trophies elsewhere. After 12 victories, Dortmund lost 35 victories at the end of the season.
PSG, Dortmund's opponent in the semi-final, may be synonymous with chaos. After winning the first match 1-0 at home, Dortmund may, but certainly not, have the best chance of reaching the Champions League final.
Those who stink with the weakest side for the remaining fates are even more offensive. In defense is the 35-year-old Mats Hummels, who went to Bayern in 2016, and then returned in 2019, having won three championship titles for the Dortmund team.. The leader is Jan Maatsen, who joined the team in Sichny on loan after fighting for playing time in Chelsea. This team is not taking part in the European Cups this season and is hoping to rise above the Premier League in order to qualify for the European Cups for the coming season.
In the attack is Jadon Sancho, who became one of Europe's brightest young talents in Dortmund before his career at Manchester United ended in failure. In front of Niklas Fulkrug, who had the opportunity to pave his way through the lower divisions in Germany, the first low season for Werder Bremen brought him a move to Dortmund last summer. The most miraculous goal at the Westfalenstadion gave Dortmund the advantage before the second-round game in Paris.
Like the image of Eric ten Gaga and Mauricio Pochettino, who are watching from their sofas for this, as Sancho and Maatsen are facing off at the Champions League finals, I don’t want a little bit of money?
To make things more welcoming to Chelsea fans, see how Dortmund follows Tottenham legend Harry Kane by beating Bayern Munich in the final and continuing their trophy bid.
Or maybe some of you can enjoy this, as Bellingham loses Dortmund in order to finally lose them in the Champions League finals.
No one seems to be guilty of thinking about these greedy speeches, except Dortmund’s victory over PSG (and the reminder of Kylian Mbappe’s farewell speech) and victory in the tournament conveys a message for the skin.
It’s clear that you don’t root for the baked super teams of Dortmund - Schalke.
From The Athletic.