Borussia Dortmund 3-0 Monaco
Three second-half goals gave Borussia Dortmund a comfortable win over Monaco in tonight’s Group A Champions League clash at the Signal Iduna Park.
After a quiet opening half, the home team exploded into life after the break with goals from halftime substitute Jacob Bruun Larsen, Paco Alcacer and Marco Reus.
It was an accomplished performance by Lucien Favre’s team, which wasn’t at its most fluent for much of the game. Quality in front of goal, however, counted in the end.
Monaco boss Leonardo Jardim has more work to do with his struggling team, following a shocking start to the season.
The Champions League 2018 betting markets had BVB at 61.00 to win the competition, and second favourites to win Group A at odds of 3.00 with SBOBET football. But with two wins from two and great form in the Bundesliga, there could be some good value there.
Highlights of the game
Monaco captain Radamel Falcao urged his team to wake from its slumber and take on the German giants, and his team responded well in the early stages. Benjamin Henrichs and Moussa Sylla both had good efforts on goal—with the latter even setting up Youri Tielemans whose shot flew towards the top right corner only to be well saved by Roman Burki.
Alcacer tried his luck from distance for Dortmund, but his shot went narrowly wide. Burki was then called into action again to save a header from Sylla who was aiming for the corner.
BVB Skipper Marco Reus is in superb form after scoring three goals in the last two games, getting rave reviews after BVB’s seven-goal destruction of Nuremberg. And he tried to lift his team before the break only to see his shot charged down.
After a strangely quiet first half from his frontmen, Favre made a change at the break and brought on the in-form Bruun Larsen for Wolf. And what a switch that was! BVB were transformed, and it only took the Dane five minutes to break the deadlock as he latched on to a through ball from Jadon Sancho before firing low into the corner… the Yellow Wall finally erupted!
English winger Sancho has just signed a new contract to keep him at the club until 2022, which is great news for BVB’s fans. He’s getting better by the game, and he’ll be up there at the top of the assists table if he stays fit.
Burki was called into action again, this time to save a header from Falcao in the bottom corner after Aleksandr Golovin had found the Colombian with a superb cross.
But it was game over for Les Monegasques on 72 minutes when Alcacer made it two, taking a pass from Reus and firing home. That was only BVB’s third shot on target but the home fans didn’t mind that one bit!
Marco Reus made it three in injury time with a sweet cross-shot after the impressive Larsen had found his skipper—a little harsh on Monaco but a great night for Dortmund.
Key statistics
Monaco took the lead in their opening Champions League fixture against Atletico Madrid, but they ended up empty-handed in that game. And they gave it a real go in the early stages of this clash but couldn’t beat BVB’s in-form keeper.
BVB had 60 percent of the first-half possession, though Monaco put a decent shift in and Burki was the busier of the two keepers, making three saves while the hosts had only one shot on target. But it was a different story in the second half, as the hosts found their potency in front of goal to run out comfortable winners. They ended up with six on target efforts to Monaco’s five.
Les Monegasques have won only one in ten competitive games this season and Jardim needs to guard against his side getting into a rut, after losing to Dortmund for the first time in three meetings.
What’s next?
The other Group A Champions League 2018 results saw Atletico Madrid beat Club Brugge to join BVB at the top of the group on six points. That deadlock could end soon though, as the two meet later this month in Dortmund for the next round.
In the meantime, the next visitors at the Signal Iduna Park are FC Augsburg. Manuel Baum’s club has made a decent start to the campaign, sitting in eighth and taking a point off FC Bayern a couple of weeks ago.
Monaco desperately need a lift and have a big chance to climb out of the bottom three in Ligue 1, when they host 16th-placed Rennes. The visitors, like Monaco, have taken just a single point from the last three league games.
Then Jardim’s team will head north to Brugge for their next Champions League clash, and that’s another good opportunity to climb out of the doldrums.
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