BVB is eliminated from the Champions League after a big fight

Kai Havertz destroyed Borussia Dortmund's dream of reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a questionable penalty. The German national player in the service of FC Chelsea sealed the end of BVB's recent successful series with ten wins with his converted hand penalty after two controversial referee decisions (53rd minute) in BVB's 0: 2 (0: 1) in the second leg of the eighth final in ten competitive games. In front of 39,392 spectators at Stamford Bridge in London, Raheem Sterling (44th minute) had previously put England 1-0 ahead.

But the big excitement was the controversial hand penalty, which referee Danny Makkelie only gave after studying the video and then had it repeated after Havertz first hit the post. Nevertheless, the deserved knockout was the result of an offensive and passive performance by coach Edin Terzic's team, who after the 1-0 win in the first leg hoped to make it into the last eight teams for the first time since 2021 and additional income of over ten million euros had made. Unfortunately, BVB also has to cope with a longer absence of the recently strong Julian Brandt.

BVB, who had reached the stadium 15 minutes late, had to suppress some bad news first. It was already clear after the final training session in the morning that first-choice goalkeeper Gregor Kobel would not be able to play between the posts because of a muscular problem in his thigh. Another guarantee of success in recent weeks broke after just three minutes when Brandt grabbed his back left thigh and had to be substituted. Giovanni Reyna came into play for the German national player, who has been outstanding since the winter break.

With the handicap, BVB went into an initial phase in which Chelsea started with a lot of force. It was also clear that the Blues have only scored five goals in twelve games since the beginning of the year. Joao Felix (6th) and Kai Havertz (8th) missed in a promising position. Already in the first leg, the English had lost a better position with a poor conversion of chances.

The black and yellow needed a good ten minutes before they were in the game. Led by impeller Jude Bellingham, BVB got the game under control. And not much was missing, then Marco Reus would have almost scored the opening goal. Chelsea keeper Kepa just scratched his free kick from 18 meters out of the corner (17th).

Now the stage was set for a thrilling knockout game. At Chelsea, national player Havertz was always in the spotlight. And the winning goal scorer from the 2021 Champions League final was unlucky twice: First when he hit the inside post (28th). The former Leverkusen player did better on the next try, but his goal in the top left corner of the goal was disallowed because Sterling had been offside the previous chance (38').

Both the Sterling attempt and Felix's shot shortly afterwards (40') made a great save by Alexander Meyer. The goalkeeper, who was in goal for Jahn Regensburg in the second division last season, was a strong Kobel substitute, as he was in the 2-1 win against RB Leipzig. But when the pressure became too great towards the end of the first half, Meyer was powerless too. Sterling scored from ten yards for a well-deserved lead.

And immediately after the break things got worse for BVB: After a cross from Ben Chilwell, the ball bounced off Marius Wolf's slightly spread arm, after the intervention of the video assistant, referee Danny Makkelie pointed to the point - a questionable decision. But that's not all: Havertz took the penalty to the inside post, but was allowed to try again because the Dutch referee thought some BVB players had moved into the penalty area too early. Makkelie did not take into account that Chelsea professional Chilwell had run into the penalty area earlier. Havertz did better on the second try.

Only after the 0:2 BVB showed a reaction and pushed the offensive game. But the chances of Jude Bellingham (58th), Marius Wolf (65th) and Niklas Süle (72nd) remained unused. The substitutions of fresh attackers like Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Donyell Malen did not bring a goal either.