Borussia Dortmund 0-1 Arsenal Match Report

In terms of results, last night's game was certainly one of Arsenal's greatest European nights. Dortmund have become one of the most formidable and highly regarded teams in Europe. Their home form is spectacular, better than any other team in Europe's top leagues... unfortunately for them though they came up against a ruthless Gunners side whose away form is equally impressive.

Before the game, a huge amount of respect was exchanged between the two bosses with Klopp even referring to our manager as Sir Arsène Wenger. Dortmund showed their class by putting their former star, Tomas Rosicky's shirt from the first game in their museum. As the teams emerged into the stadium to the yellow wall of 80,000 fans it was easy to see why Klopp described his club as "worth falling in love with."

That respect continued into the first half with the Arsenal players, seemingly having learnt their lesson from the first game, careful not to commit too many men forward and leave themselves open. Dortmund's pressing was relentless and impressive - it's hard to recall many matches where our midfielders have had so much trouble imposing themselves on the game and Arteta in particular looked frustrated. At half time, we hadn't managed a single shot and sneaking a win seemed unlikely. Keeping a clean sheet also seemed like a very tall order after narrow misses by Subotic and Mkhitaryan.  Before the game, Klopp had spoke of the serenity of Arsenal but I for one felt very far from serene in that first half.

If we were hoping that the balance of play would change in the second half, the first ten minutes suggested it wouldn't. Such was the speed and intensity of Dortmund's pressure, it felt as though they had a couple of extra players.

Miraculously, shortly after the hour mark, something rather wonderful happened - after some good work from Rosicky, Mesut Özil lofted a cross to Olivier Giroud who expertly nodded the ball into the path of Aaron Ramsey whose brave header gave us the only goal of the game and a vital three points.  He had been working tirelessly alongside Arteta to help shield the back four, finding almost no opportunities to get forward but obviously got bored of not scoring for an hour or so and decided to rectify that.  This quite brilliant GIF shows the reaction of the Dortmund fans.

It was a very lonely night for Olivier Giroud but he worked hard throughout and his superb assist for Ramsey was a great example of what he brings to the team.  I read a stat after the weekend that Robin van Persie had created just five chances in nine games whereas Giroud had created seventeen in ten games.  Since then, Robin van F*ckyouIneverlovedyouanyway missed a penalty and Giroud provided an assist for a match winner in Dortmund.  While it would be a stretch to say Giroud is as talented, he certainly brings an awful lot to the team and is far superior to that traitorous Douche in many ways.

Robert Lewandowski is of course an excellent player - full of clever movement, hard work and clinical in front of goal, but my goodness what a helmet that man is! Very lucky to be playing after an elbow on Koscielny in London, he slid through the back of Aaron Ramsey in the first half, spent the 2nd half trying to get our lego-haired skipper sent off and after a great Rosicky challenge indulged in some play-acting that Ashley Young would have been ashamed about... I joke, I joke - Ashley Young has no shame.  It's seems a pity though that Lewandowski will almost definitely follow Mario Götze's footsteps to Bayern in the summer.

Despite his obvious talents, Lewandowski and his team-mates were unable to break down a very disciplined and organised Arsenal back line.  Koscielny was terrific and Per Mertesacker alongside him was my man of the match - he was absolutely immense, as he has been for quite some time.  He has been so underrated for so long - it always amazes me when people express their doubts about him - he just oozes class through the way he reads the game, his positioning and decision-making, the way that he doesn't just win defensive headers but works out long in advance who to head the ball to.   The team defensive performance was all the more impressive given that Dortmund has scored in 60 of 61 of their last home games.  We finished last season by grinding out narrow wins and conceding very few goals.  We drew on those performances last night and it is so encouraging to have kept clean sheets in big games this season against the likes of Sp*rs, Liverpool, Napoli and now Dortmund.

"Sometimes it was like they were defending with four legs." - Jurgen Klopp

I'm not sure that last night was quite a symphony of beautiful football but it was certainly a great result - one that will no doubt have raised some eyebrows across Europe and it puts us in with an excellent chance of qualification from an extremely difficult group.  After the game, Arsène praised his side's focus and maturity which contrasted nicely from our naivety in the last Dortrmund game.  A friend texted last night to say he thought it was our most impressive result in years.  My reply was "until Sunday..."


Man of the Match: Per Mertesacker

A Manchester United supporting friend of my mine will kindly and bravely be previewing Sunday's big game with me.  I hope you will give it a read and be gentle with him!