Home   >   MOTDs   >   MOTD: Liverpool 4-3 Borussia Dortmund (5-4 agg)

MOTD: Liverpool 4-3 Borussia Dortmund (5-4 agg)

By on April 14, 2016

Thomas Tuchel is the analytical counterpoint to Jurgen Klopp’s emotional thrill-ride at Borussia Dortmund and the German manager was coolly confident heading into their Europa League quarterfinal second leg tie for a reason.  He had mapped out a masterful gameplan and wanted “one or two” early goals to put Klopp’s Liverpool side on the back foot at Anfield and sure enough, Dortmund were as good as his word.

Yet Klopp managed to tap into the emotion on the night to spur Liverpool into a stirring comeback from 3-1 down to take the 4-3 victory in the final moments of the match.  Dejan Lovren’s stoppage time header turned the tie on its head and Dortmund, for all their meticulous planning, were powerless to stop a rampant Liverpool.

It was this unharnessed emotion that Klopp managed to tap into to beat his old team.  The German has reignited the same X-factor that gave Liverpool famous European victories in the past, such as the Miracle of Istanbul, and this victory will surely live in the same revered light at Anfield.

“For tonight, it was brilliant, outstanding, wonderful, emotional… Everything,” said Klopp. It had all the ingredients to go down as an Anfield classic on the eve of the 27th anniversary of the Hillsborough Stadium Disaster and the final memorial service at Anfield for the 96 victims of the tragedy.

The game demonstrated the undermining flaws in Klopp’s team, but highlighted the club’s spirit and sense of unity that Klopp has rooted his philosophy in just six months into his tenure at the club.

Yet apart from the last half hour, Dortmund were largely dominant.  Less than three-minutes in, Henrikh Mkhitaryan volleyed home a surprise go-ahead goal after Simon Mignolet had saved Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s attempt on goal.

Dortmund scythed through Liverpool’s defensive on the break in a manner that would have made Klopp proud, and, in a sense, one that had could still take credit four. Just four minutes later, Aubameyang had put Dortmund in the driver’s seat of the tie with a second goal.

Divock Origi, who had been given the start ahead of Daniel Sturridge following his goalscoring performance in the first leg, Alberto Moreno, Adam Lallana and Roberto Firmino, all had decent chances at the other end of the pitch but Liverpool exited the half without a shot on target.

Their spirits were shot, but Klopp delivered a rousing half-time speech.  Go out and make history, he told his team, according to Mamadou Sakho, make this moment one you will tell your Grandchildren.  And Liverpool did exactly that.

Origi scored his fourth goal his past three appearances in the forty-eighth minute, coolly converting after Emre Can had bolted right through Dortmund’s midfield.

Although Marco Reus restored Dortmund’s cushion with a neat finish from Mats Hummels’, Philippe Coutinho restored the frenzied atmosphere at Anfield when he found the bottom corner form twenty-five yards out.  Sakho then buried a bouncing header from a near-post corner with twelve minutes to go and the comeback was on.

Finally, Lovren won it with a towering header at the far-post off a James Milner cross.

“At a certain point they were completely driven by emotion,” said Tuchel, per Dortmund’s official website. “Ultimately we were hit by a late sucker punch from the opposition. S*** happens.”

This the most explanation one of football’s best tacticians needed to summarize a chaotic match that never really made sense.

Homepage photo credit: Robert Cutts from Bristol, England, UK (Anfield Uploaded by BaldBoris) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.