Traveling away to Malaga for the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal and returning home with a 0-0 draw isn’t a bad result for Dortmund. Once you realize how many wasted chances the Germans had to leave with three or four goals in their pocket, the result will likely feel a little less positive.
Malaga vs. Borussia Dortmund, 2013 UEFA Champions League: Final score 0-0, Poor finishing keeps Dortmund from taking control
A scoreless draw away to Malaga is hardly a bad result for Dortmund, but considering all the wasted chances to score goals, it likely won’t leave the best taste in their mouths.
Malaga got the game’s first good chance In the 7th minute as Javier Saviola sliced through the German defense with relative ease, before cutting inside of Ilkay Gündogan and sending his shot into the side netting. Saviola should have looked up though on the play as he had two teammates making runs as the Dortmund goal.
Dortmund’s first real chance came in the 14th minute when Mario Götze got behind the defensive line thanks a great header by Robert Lewandowski. Götze broke one-on-one against Wilfredo Caballero but his shot was poor and it was a fairly easy save for the Malaga keeper.
Götze missed on another great chance in the 18th minute after Gündogan cut left before sending the ball out to the unmarked Götze on the right. Again Caballero was in the right place, closing down the angle and blocking Götze’s low shot with his feet.
A bit of a howler by Caballero in the 23rd minute nearly gave Dortmund the lead, but they were saved by a correct offside call. Caballero’s parried Lewandowski’s header right to the feet of Kevin Grosskreutz whose goal was disallowed thanks to Lewa being offside on the initial header.
Malaga defender Weligton was shown the game’s first yellow card in the 31st minute for bringing down Lewandowski just on the edge of the Malaga area. The card means Weligton will miss the second leg in Germany. Marco Reus’ subsequent free kick was fired wide of the goal.
Malaga settled down as the halftime neared and came ever so close to grabbing the opening goal in the 42nd minute after earning a corner kick. Jeremy Toulalan got free in the area and directed a header on goal that was pushed around the post by Roman Weidenfeller with an excellent diving save.
Lewandowski missed an amazing chance to put Dortmund in front in the XX minute after the Polish striker slipped and shanked a wide open shot from 10-yards in front of the Malaga goal. When the centering pass came in from the left, there wasn’t a person in the stadium that didn’t think the goal was coming, that’s how bad of a miss it was.
Yet another missed chance for Götze in the 64th minute after he split the Malaga defense and ran onto a lovely ball from Gündogan. Caballero did a good job of limited Götze’s options, but it still another poor effort from the German. Malaga responded with some good pressure and tested Weidenfeller again thanks to a hard shot from Isco at the top of the area.
Manuel Iturra picked up a yellow card for a late tackle on Lewandowski in the 76th minute that will see him suspended for the second leg.
Lots of positives for Dortmund, other than their finishing, and they should feel pretty good about the second leg back home at the Westfalenstadion.
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