When we think of it, both the teams are not too different. Both play very attractive football, and have some youngsters who have grown to be tremendous fan favourites. And of course, both of them have to see their star-players leave the club in pursuit of ‘better’ opportunities very regularly.
So what makes Dortmund come back so strongly?
Loosing Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski to rivals Bayern Munich surely cannot have been pleasant for Borrusia Dortmund. Especially with the club backed by the most passionate fans in the world, losing quality players is never good for the club’s progress. However, unlike Arsenal, someone always steps up, not necessarily in terms of talent, but in terms of spirit. Reus, Hummels, Kehl and the latest additions of Aubameyang or Immobile have given the team a lot of positivity. Credit to Klopp here, for creating multiple leaders in the squad.
Strategically, what cost Arsenal the game was that the pace. Dortmund did not give a chance to Arsenal to get their slick passing going. They attacked the weakest link, Hector Bellerin so much that Arsenal got busy saving the flanks. While Aubameyang and Großkeutz causing havoc in the wide areas, Mkhitaryan, Kehl and Immobile started the game going. Aubameyang was exceptional, however. He used his running to be present everywhere on the field. He never let Immobile be isolated upfront, linking the midfield to him. The same did not happen for Danny Welbeck in Arsenal. In any case, Welbeck was wasteful in front of goal, whereas Immobile was pin-point accurate.
Sebastian Kehl and Sven Bender controlled the midfield superbly; they never let the build-up of the opposition develop. And lastly, the back four of Dortmund showed tremendous coordination, never making one slip.
Two things Dortmund did proved to be devastating for Arsenal:
- Shooting from long range might have seemed like a cowardly move from Dortmund at first, but it worked in their favor when they started hitting on targets and the Arsenal centre backs started moving up-field to suffocate the space. That ended up creating holes between the centre backs and already bombarded full-backs, which Aubameyang and Großkeutz exploited.
- Großkeutz and Aubameyang kept swapping flanks, which added to the confusion of the already disoriented Arsenal team.
Overall, the game that Dortmund played was ‘complete’ and gave the fans a pride they completely deserve.
Source: DSG
