After the game, chief critic Hummels begins the rare praise

The prominent guest behaved modestly and gratefully. After the final whistle, Erling Haaland paid a visit to the Borussia Dortmund dressing room. The Norwegian striker from Manchester City had signed jerseys with him, which he distributed to his former team-mates and the team officials. Previously, Haaland had already completed a lap of honor through the stadium, where he had regularly been chasing goals until last summer. Then he crashed a television interview by Gregor Kobel when he spontaneously gave the BVB keeper a kiss in front of the camera.

On the other hand, Haaland's proof of work was unusually unspectacular. He only played 45 minutes in which he was completely ineffective - firstly because Haaland went into the game with "a little fever", as Manchester coach Pep Guardiola later revealed. On the other hand, because it was neutralized by attentive and collective defense.

Whenever a ball came near the 22-year-old, several Borussia players literally flew at him. He was only rarely able to start his dreaded sprints into the penalty area. If Haaland was there for once, he didn't even come close to the playground equipment - Mats Hummels was always there. "It's incredibly difficult against Erling. You always have to be ready. It takes a lot of time and energy to defend him," said Dortmund's defense chief. Not only Hummels, who has been in top form for weeks, was ready that evening, but the entire team. This was the key that BVB had come to a 0-0 after three narrow defeats against City and thus moved into the round of 16 of the Champions League one game day before the end of the preliminary round.

"We finally wanted to beat them, we were always close," said Hummels after a game in which BVB showed what they can do if tactical guidelines are followed and mistakes are avoided. Then it will be possible for coach Edin Terzic's team to play on an equal footing against top international teams.

In the past few weeks, when there were repeated mistakes and mistakes in the 1-1 draw against FC Sevilla in the Champions League, the 0-2 draw at Union Berlin in the Bundesliga and the flattering 2-0 win in the DFB Cup in Hanover Negligence had come, Hummels had expressed massive criticism. The team just isn't playing mature enough, some of the younger players in particular need to finally understand that successful football requires better risk assessment, he had said.

Not everyone on the team liked the publicly held blame game. On Wednesday, the 33-year-old followed up his criticism with action – but not just him. "If I criticize, you have to expect me to be ahead in terms of performance," he said: "But Nico Schlotterbeck and Emre Can also really hit it off."

It was time for some justifiable praise from the veteran who still has hopes of going to Qatar for the World Cup. "I would like to particularly emphasize Karim Ademeyi, who worked like a bull for 70 minutes on his right side," said Hummels. Adeyemi was heavily criticized by Hummels after he favored Dortmund's second goal at Union Berlin with an unnecessary back-heel pass.

The performance against the English champions raises hopes that a stabilization process at BVB is still possible. It became clear that the defensive, often the Achilles' heel in recent years, is qualitatively much higher this season. This is also supported by the fact that with Schlotterbeck, Hummels and Niklas Süle, who played the right-back position on Tuesday, three candidates for the central defense in the national team came from Dortmund. Although Borussia have conceded a relatively large number of goals (14) in the current Bundesliga season, this is more due to the fact that the defensive behavior of the entire team was often too fragile.

Not against Manchester, on the other hand – there was no let-up, hardly any mental lapses. "It was exhausting for all of us, but we wanted to see it through to the end and not take a step back," said Terzic. This time his team played maturely: After not being able to score in the first half, when there had been numerous good opportunities to take the lead, the own goal was secured by consistent defense after the change. Ultimately, the strong Gregor Kobel kept the zero: The keeper saved a penalty kick from Riyad Mahrez (58th minute). "I was actually looking forward to Erling taking the penalty," said Kobel, "but unfortunately it wasn't on the pitch."