The UEFA Champions League knockouts often have thrilling encounters and it was no different as Borussia Dortmund secured a hard-fought home draw against Sevilla to go through to the quarterfinals of the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League.
A brace from Erling Haaland cancelled out Moroccan striker Youssef En-Nesyri’s double as the hosts secured their place in the last 8 of the UEFA Champions League after a 2-2 draw at the Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund.
Dortmund won the first leg in Seville by beating the hosts 3-2 to go in with a massive advantage for the second leg having a goal advantage and 3 away goals in the bag.
The Black and Yellow were cruising to qualification in what looked all but over already as young starlet Erling Braut Haaland put his side 1-0 up in the 35th minute to take the aggregate score to 4-2 in favour of Dortmund.
BVB went into the break with that 1 goal advantage and less than 10 minutes into the 2nd half, the lead was doubled after Haaland scored from the penalty spot.
There was lots of drama with the penalty as the first attempt was saved by Sevilla and Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou but had to be retaken as the keeper was off his line.
Haaland made no mistake on the second attempt to firmly put his side in the driver’s seat as they went 2-0 up and 5-2 on aggregate. This almost signaled game over for Sevilla as they now needed to score 3 goals unanswered in less than 40 minutes, just to send the game into extra time.
There was some hope for the away side, however. En-Nesyri found the back of the net in the 68th minute after Dortmund conceded a penalty. This put the game score at 2-1 and 5-3 on aggregate.
Youssef En-Nesyri’s brace was in vain. (Photo by Alex Gottschalk/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
Sevilla kept pushing but Dortmund did well to contain them.
En-Nesyri finally did score again in the 6th minute of stoppage time to make it 2-2 but it was a little too late as the German side held on and secured their place in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals for the first time since 2016-17 after winning 5-4 on aggregate.
Dortmund has now gone unbeaten in their last 8 games at home (5 wins and 3 draws) in the UEFA Champions League.
The German side has scored for the 34th game in a row in all competitions, which is a new club record.
Haaland breaking records
The young Norwegian is the fastest player ever to score 20 goals in the UEFA Champions League by doing so in just 14 appearances! The closest to him is Harry Kane who scored 20 in 27 appearances.
Haaland is now the highest-scoring Norwegian in Europe’s top flight as he overtook Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar-Solskjaer’s record.
Erling Haaland is also the youngest player to score in 6 consecutive UEFA Champions League games and has become the first player in the competition to score at least 2 goals in 4 consecutive games.
