Another wonderful Champions League night in N17 saw us overcome Borussia Dortmund with goals from Cristian Romero and Dominic Solanke rounding off an excellent performance.
Tuesday’s 2-0 victory guaranteed a top 24 finish in the league phase and a play-off place and, depending on Wednesday night’s results, it’s likely a win at Eintracht Frankfurt next Wednesday will secure a passage straight into the last 16.
Facing a Dortmund side which had only lost once in the Bundesliga all season and were joint top scorers in this season’s Champions League, we were always on top in the contest, even before Daniel Svensson was given a straight red card in the 26th minute. By that stage, Romero had netted his first Champions League goal for us, while Solanke capped his first start of the season with his first goal of the campaign to put us 2-0 up at the break, a lead we didn’t relinquish.
It extended our run to 24 home European matches without defeat and four home wins without conceding in the league phase this term, while there was a further bright spot with a debut off the bench for 17-year-old Academy product Jun’ai Byfield, becoming Legacy Number 902 in the process.
We made five changes from the weekend defeat to West Ham with many of those enforced because of injuries, suspensions and ineligible players. Kevin Danso, Destiny Udogie, Djed Spence, Lucas Bergvall and Solanke came in for Micky van de Ven, Ben Davies, Conor Gallagher, Mathys Tel and Randal Kolo Muani.
With the Champions League anthem pumping out and the fans right behind the team, we made a bright start on a chilly night in N17 and went close on six minutes when Odobert got away down the right flank, his low ball into the box almost found Xavi Simons but Svensson cleared for a corner. We never let Dortmund settle and took the lead with 14 minutes gone. Pedro Porro’s corner was headed away by Serhou Guirassy to Odobert who, although mis-kicking his attempted volley, was able to swing the loose ball into the area where Romero slotted home from the edge of the six-yard box.
Odobert was causing Dortmund all sorts of trouble down his flank and was in again four minutes later, his cross this time finding Xavi but his effort was deflected away for a corner. That came to nothing but we were given a boost in the 26th minute when Svensson was given a straight red card. His challenge on Odobert’s shin initially earned him a yellow card, but Swedish referee Glenn Nyberg upgraded it to a red after a pitchside review.
That allowed us to start to dictate the game a bit more, enjoying lots of possession for a spell and going close again when another ball in from the right landed at the feet of Spence whose first-time volley flew over the bar. Two minutes later though, we did double our lead, Pedro Porro and Odobert superbly combining again with the latter cutting back for Solanke to convert. Only he will know whether he meant the double flick in off the post!
We forced Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel into his first save of the night in the 42nd minute as he gathered in a shot from Odobert from the edge of the area while the closing minutes of the half saw us in control going into the break.
The visitors made two changes at the interval and one of them, Julian Ryerson, had their first effort at goal soon after the restart, hitting a 25-yard free-kick just wide of Guglielmo Vicario’s post before Xavi was well off target with a right-foot curler at the other end. With the two-goal advantage, we didn’t go chasing the game and were content to let Dortmund have the ball in front us. They saw plenty of it but Vicario wasn’t tested and, instead, it was Kobel with a big save at his near post to deny Xavi after an excellent counter-attack. Romero then headed just wide from a Porro corner.
It really should have been 3-0 in the 78th minute after Xavi’s wonderful ball released Kolo Muani in on goal but Kobel stood tall to deny him, while Xavi blazed wide as we continued to create chances. Dortmund had a couple of headers in the final minutes, Nico Schlotterbeck the closest when he forced Vicario to tip the ball over the bar in stoppage time, before one final glorious opportunity for our third as Xavi led the breakaway and played in Pedro Porro surging forwards from the back, but he couldn’t get a shot away and we had to settle for just the two goals on a fantastic night in north London.