Edin Terzic said before the second leg that if the game was decided on the favorites Dortmund wouldn’t even have made the semifinals. Now, the Bundesliga’s current fifth-placed team are in their second Champions League final in London in 11 years.
Indeed, it was Dortmund, not the favorites, who looked more in control. It was Dortmund, whose squad is valued at less than half of their opponents, who landed the knockout blow. And it is Dortmund, a club whose majority owners are their fans and not a country, who are in the final.
“To make the final, where it all started in 2013, hats off,” Marco Reus told Amazon afterwards. “It’s crazy that we’re in the final, no one thought it was possible.”
“There is always a team that makes the quarterfinal that people don’t expect to be there and we wanted to be that team this year,” Edin Terzic said afterwards.
“I will drink more than one glass [of red wine] tonight,” said Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke.
Luck on their side
Like all great sides, they needed their fair slice of luck. Nico Schlotterbeck’s deflection went just wide instead of going in. Mats Hummels’ sliding tackle clipping Ousmane Dembele centimeters outside the box rather than in. Warren Zaire-Emery hitting the post from a tight angle when he looked destined to score. Both Nuno Mendes and Vitiniha sending long-range efforts onto the post and bar respectively. Mbappe’s effort hitting the bar with four minutes to go. PSG ended the tie having hit the woodwork six times and scored no goals.
In both games, luck was on Dortmund’s side and composure was not on PSG’s, or as Reus said afterwards when asked about the woodwork being on their side: “Who cares? No one will ask about that in the morning, they’ll only see our name in the final.”
To speak only of luck though, would be to ignore the way Dortmund have played in what has now become a legendary run to the final. Dortmund finished top of a group with PSG, AC Milan and Newcastle. They dealt with PSV, dramatically overcame Atletico Madrid and have now overturned the overwhelming favorites without conceding.
Fitting then, that this team of entertainers makes the Champions League final in the year they have looked the most inconsistent in the Bundesliga. Last season they lost the title in heartbreaking fashion on the final day. This time around they’ve twice drawn with Heidenheim and are nowhere near the top three.
A victory years in the making
But this victory was testament to a team finding itself at the perfect time – Dortmund played the same starting eleven for the third straight game – and a coach who is showing he belongs at the top level. In 2013, when Dortmund were last in a Champions League final and lost to Bayern Munich, it was Kevin Großkreutz, the fan turned player. Now, with Terzic, it’s the fan turned coach. The connections in this club remain at its core.
“That’s why we do it,” said Terzic, watching the clips of his team celebrating with fans and friends afterwards. “We wanted it last year in our own stadium but the pictures looked different. Tonight, we were able to give some of that back to our fans today.”
Perhaps there was an element of that carrying this team through this season. This was a victory for all those moments when the club’s mentality was questioned, for the trauma of the bomb attack on the team bus in 2017, for Marco Reus, the club’s iconic figure who recently announced his departure after 12 years of service that passed with more major injuries than major titles, for the fans who traveled to Paris and had to pay more for the cheapest ticket than many PSG fans in Dortmund did, for a league that has shown the rest of Europe it is possible to enjoy football without opening the door to rampant capitalism. The scenes of players, fans and families celebrating together afterwards offered an opportunity to remember what this club and all connected to it have been through in recent years, and why that makes this moment so special for them.
Hummels the hero
For a side whose pieces have finally fit together, it was only logical that Mats Hummels won man of the match. The 35-year-old has played every minute in Europe this season, and while there have been dips this season, there has also been plenty of vintage performances from the veteran defender and tonight in Paris was another example of that. A stretched foot to deny Mbappe, 78% of his tackles won, and in game 506, perhaps the most important goal of his career.
In 2017, former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said of PSG’s €222 million purchase of Neymar: “Once a country owns a club, everything is possible.”
Everything, it seems, other than the Champions League title. Since the Qatari takeover, PSG have been to one final. Borussia Dortmund are now heading to their second in the same timeframe and they might even face Bayern Munich all over again.
Edited by: Kieran Burke
