Anything Bayern can do, Borussia Dortmund can do… nearly as good, eh?
Nobody was saying it at the time, but God bless that ash cloud that hovered over Europe a few years ago and caused an untold amount of chaos for air travellers throughout the continent for an extended period.
If it wasn’t for that ash cloud, Robert Lewandowski might be a Blackburn Rovers player right now but he couldn’t travel to England ahead of a proposed move to Rovers from Lech Poznan, meaning he was banging in four goals against the most decorated side in Europe on the biggest stage rather than helping Rovers grind out a 2-1 victory away to Millwall on Tuesday night.
There’s every chance that Lewandowski would never have made the move, of course, and even if he had he probably would have moved onto better things before long, such is the obvious ability that was demonstrated in such devastating fashion last night.
Few players (few teams for God’s sake) score four goals against Real Madrid and even fewer do it on an occasion as big as last night and if Bayern hadn’t all but wrapped up his signature for next season, you suspect that the Real Madrid hierarchy would have been thrusting a big contract under his nose before he even left the Westfalenstadion last night.
The one man who was probably happy to see that ash cloud a few years backk
Yes, he was that good, but then so were the rest of the Borussia Dortmund side, who humiliated Real Madrid in a manner that, just like Barcelona against Bayern the night before, they’re simply not accustomed to.
In our preview of the game yesterday, we thought that Dortmund might hold back on their relentless pressing style for fear of being caught on the counter attack, but if anything they were more ravenous in pursuit of the opposition than ever and Cristiano Ronaldo, in particular, was surrounded by at least two Dortmund players the second he touched the ball.
Xabi Alonso, Luka Modric and Sami Khedira were also kept very quiet and Mesut Ozil endured as frustrating a night back in his homeland as he will for quite some time; Dortmund just wouldn’t let them play.
Not that their restriction of their opponents had any effect on their own impact, mind. Mario Gotze played as if he hadn’t a care in the world rather than being burdened by all that had gone in the 48 hours leading up to game and his ball for Lewandowski’s opener was a special one indeed.
Marco ‘Rolls’ Reus ran at the Madrid rearguard from wide areas and through the middle and the excellent Ilkay Gundogan was a bundle of energy in the middle of the park.
After their early season magnificence in the competition Dortmund seemed to have run out of steam somewhat against Malaga in the quarter-finals but they were back to their effervescent best last night, with a speed of passing and movement in attack that a team like Real, who are certainly no slouches, simply couldn’t cope with.
With an away goal – a gifted one at that – under their belt, however, Real can’t be ruled out of contention at the Bernabeu, impossible though their task may seem.
They’ll be playing on their own turf and their fans will demand that a club of their stature restore some pride against these upstarts – Dortmund have won the competition before of course, but it is the current side’s first appearance in the knockout stages – but as good as they are, it is incredibly hard to see anything but an all-German final in Wembley next month.
With Gotze gone, Lewandowski almost certain to follow him out the door and others potentially to follow, the final might be the last time we see Dortmund in their current guise and if it is, last night’s performance was one that summed them up at their very best.
It’s Germany 8-1 Spain at half-time then and Spain’s big two have a huge job on their hands to prove that there is still life in the old dogs yet. That talk of a power shift from south-west to central Europe is a little premature just yet.
