While they continue to put pressure on Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund also have the little matter of the Champions League knockouts to navigate.
Heading into the game, Niko Kovac would be without both Nico Schlotterbeck and Niklas Süle, which meant Luca Reggiani would be given his first start for the club, after only making his debut just over a week ago.
However, like against Mainz, this wouldn’t really be a problem when Serhou Guirassy opened the scoring within three minutes when he headed home a Julian Ryerson cross. The Norweigen’s assist he had assisted each of Dortmund’s last five goals.
After the early opener, it was a pretty even affair with the hosts having the better share of the chances, but neither side was truly able to challenge the opposing number ones.
As the game headed to extra-time, with their second shot on target of the game, Guirassy turned provider as his ball across the face of the goal was bundled in by Maximilian Beier to make it 2-0.
The second half was a lot quieter affair as Dortmund looked to manage the game and take a comfortable lead into the second leg, and they were able to do that with relative ease, with Atalanta very rarely challenging the Dortmund defence and Gregor Kobel in goal. Kovac’s side had the best chance of the second half when a corner was played in, and more or less on the goal line, nobody was able to turn it in.
Dortmund now take a 2-0 lead with them to Bergamo next week, and if Atalanta’s performance is anything to go by, next week should be easy for die Schwarzgelben. The fact that this game was also not made more difficult by Dortmund means that with a tough fortnight ahead with games against RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich and Atalanta on top of an injury crisis at centre-back, this was the best possible result and performance.
Gregor Kobel (5), Julian Ryerson (7), Luca Reggiani (5), Waldermar Anton (6), Ramy Bensebaini (6), Daniel Svensson (5), Felix Nmecha (6), Jobe Bellingham (5), Maximilian Beier (6), Julian Brandt (5), Sehrou Guirassy (7)
Others: Carney Chukwuemeka (5), Karim Adeyemi (5), Marcel Sabitzer (-), Fabio Silva (-)
Earlier this calendar year, there were major question marks about Guirassy and whether he was still effective as a striker. In recent weeks, he has shown that he has not played out of his poor run of form and looks back to his best.
Dortmund’s tactic of relying on crossing has played into the 29-year-old’s strengths, whilst he has also shown that he is still versatile enough to be a provider too with his assist for the second goal.
