Chelsea's bad luck and Brugge's mistakes: how Borussia and Benfica won in the first matches of the 1/8 finals of the Champions League

Adeyemi's run and Kobel's saves

Chelsea approached the confrontation with Borussia not in the best condition.

Londoners have spent more than €300m on the transfer market this winter, but this has not yet affected the results.

In 2023, the team won just one victory in all competitions - against the modest Crystal Palace in the Premier League.

In the five remaining matches of the national championship, she scored four points and rolled back to tenth place in the table with a serious lag behind the European Cup zone.

Also, Graham Potter's wards flew out of the FA Cup, devastatingly losing to Manchester City - 0:4.

On top of all the failures, the headquarters was missing a number of leaders.

The long-injured Eduardo Mendy and N'Golo Kante were joined in the infirmary by two leading wingers Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic and defender Kalidou Koulibaly.

Borussia Dortmund, on the other hand, have been on a stellar run, winning five consecutive Bundesliga victories and soaring into the top 3.

In addition, Sebastien Aller returned to action, scoring 11 goals in the last Champions League for Ajax.

The striker has successfully undergone treatment for cancer and has already managed to upset Freiburg in the German championship.

As a result, Edin Terzic was not afraid to trust the Ivorian and chose him at the base of Anthony Modest.

Potter also pleased the fans with the appearance of a fully recovered Koulibaly at the start.

The place on the right edge of the attack from the first minutes was occupied by Hakiem Ziyech, in the last match of the Premier League with West Ham, who came only as a substitute.

Finally, Marc Cucurella, criticized by the fans, remained in the reserve.

Instead, on the left flank of the defense is Ben Chilwell.

It is not surprising that Borussia tried to take advantage of the opponent's problems and took control of the ball from the first minutes.

However, they were ready for this and, if necessary, sat closer to their penalty area.

It was extremely difficult for the hosts to break into a saturated defense, especially in the center, where Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Enzo Fernandez worked diligently in the support zone.

Therefore, the vector of attacks often shifted to the flanks.

Most often, the partners involved Julian Brandt on the right, to which Marius Wolf regularly rose to the aid.

It was from this zone that most of the team's chances came.

Chilwell was sometimes left against two opponents, as Mudrik was not always careful in the destruction.

However, the Londoners coped with crosses and shots into the penalty area.

At the same time, their counterattacks looked no less dangerous.

It was extremely difficult for the powerful and clumsy central defenders of the German team, Niko Schlotterbeck and Niklas Süle, to keep fast technical Mudrik, Ziyech and Joao Felix, especially when they received free space.

In several episodes, only luck saved the team from a goal.

If at first the Ukrainian was noticeable on the left, then the Moroccan on the opposite side began to receive the ball much more often.

However, the opponents did not deliver a single shot on target before the break, although chances arose.

Already in the 16th minute, Thiago Silva opened the scoring after filing a standard, but did it with his hand.

Judge Jesus Gil Manzano, even without the help of VAR, recorded a violation and showed the Brazilian a yellow card.

Felix missed the most obvious chance to score at the end of the half.

Having received a pass from Ziyech in the penalty area, he easily left Wolf, but, trying to transfer Gregor Kobel, hit the crossbar.

Borussia responded with Aller's inaccurate shot into the near corner from outside the penalty area and a long-range shot from Karim Adeyemi.

However, in the second half of the meeting, the course of the game completely changed.

The guests sharply turned up the pace and forced the opponents to go on the defensive.

If before the break they had never hit Kobel's goal on target, then after they began to create one moment after another.

The Borussia players looked somewhat confused and sometimes had to break the rules near their own penalty area.

So, two fouls on Felix allowed Emre Can.

But the yellow-black goalkeeper acted unmistakably.

In total, he made eight saves and became one of the main characters of the confrontation.

Even with the score tied, Kobel coped with two nasty shots from Rhys James: first with a direct hit from the standard, and then with a rebound from the lawn after Ziyech's discount.

All the more unexpected was Dortmund's goal in the 63rd minute.

In the first half, they failed to extract anything from numerous approaches, but in the second, one counterattack was enough.

After drawing the corner, Rafael Guerreiro made a clearance to fast Adeyemi.

The German was left alone in the opponent's half against Fernandez.

The Argentinean tried to block the space for the German, but he nevertheless shook his counterpart and threw the ball into the penalty area.

Then the striker easily beat Kepa Arrizabalaga and sent the ball into the empty.

In the remaining time, Chelsea switched to bulk.

And Potter, in addition, completely refreshed the left flank, throwing Cucurella and Mason Mount into battle.

However, throws into the penalty area did not carry any sense, since Schlotterbeck and Süle won the entire fight in the air.

But the guests still had a chance to escape.

Moreover, Koulibaly, who joined the attack, could even the score.

After a cross from the right, he was left completely alone in the penalty area and hit hard from the bottom.

The ball hit an opponent and rolled over the line.

But Jan managed to take it out.

By the way, an experienced opornik had an outstanding match in terms of defensive actions.

He led the team in tackles (4) and tied for the lead in steals (2) and blocked shots (2).

Well, another creator of Borussia's victory, Kobel, once again reminded of himself already in the end, when he coped with the shots of Felix and Fernandez.

Mario's goal and Hendry and Meyer's mistakes

In the second pair of the game day, Benfica looked like the favorite.

Club Brugge sensationally made it to the knockout stages of the Champions League, scoring three victories in the first round of the group stage over Bayer, Porto and Atlético Madrid.

However, the team failed in the national championship.

Since the end of October, he has won just one victory and is 20 points behind leaders Genk.

There is practically no chance of defending the title.

Unsuccessful results led to the resignation of head coach Carl Hoefkens in December.

Englishman Scott Parker came to replace him, but this has not helped much yet.

Lisbon, on the contrary, are confidently leading the championship of Portugal, not giving up the lead to anyone.

It was especially interesting in their composition to look for Joao Mario.

The ex-midfielder of Lokomotiv is having an amazing season and came up to the next meeting with 16 goals in the asset in all competitions.

As a result, it was the midfielder's next ball that brought victory to the guests.

The owners did not get almost anything.

On top of all the troubles, they were left without the chief designer of attacks, Ferran Zhutgly.

The Spaniard got into the application and even came on as a substitute in the end, but his team clearly did not have enough.

In the absence of a playmaker, the attacking group was left without support.

In fact, the only bright spot was Tajon Bouchanan, whose left wing runs created serious problems for Alexander Bach.

However, his efforts were not enough.

Although Brugge had possession of the ball not much less than the opponent (46%), it struck only four shots at other people's goal, and only one hit the target.

In fact, the reigning Belgian champions had no chance to excel.

And Lisbon lacked accuracy before the break.

Simon Mignolet did not enter the game so often, just the opponents stubbornly beat past.

One Goncalo Ramos threatened his possessions several times, but could not hit the target.

In the second half, Parker's team was summed up by gross individual mistakes.

No sooner had the game resumed than Hendry kicked Ramush in his free kick.

The Scot did not see the striker who jumped out from behind and broke the rules on him.

The judge had no other choice but to point to the "dot".

And the hosts almost rescued the goalkeeper.

Mario struck almost in the center, but Mignolet did not guess and fall into the corner in advance.

He touched the ball with his hands, but the shot was too strong.

Thus, Joao not only scored the 17th goal this season, but also extended the hitting streak in the Champions League to four meetings.

And in the end, David Neres, who came on as a substitute, put an end to the confrontation.

And again, there was a blot of the Brugge defender.

This time, Bjorn Meyer actually gave the ball to a fresh opponent.

In turn, the Brazilian gladly sold one-on-one.

It seems that Benfica can be congratulated on reaching the quarter-finals, because the opponent showed absolutely nothing, and it is hard to believe that in the return match on a foreign field he will be able to make a comeback.