Dortmund earns 1-0 1st-leg win over PSG
Borussia Dortmund’s Niclas Fuellkrug fired in a first-half goal to seal a 1-0 victory over visiting Paris Saint-Germain in a compelling Champions League semifinal first leg late Wednesday night.
Nico Schlotterbeck floated a pass into Fuellkrug’s path and the Germany forward controlled the ball with a perfect first touch before drilling a low shot past keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma in the 36th minute.
PSG, fresh from being crowned Ligue 1 champions and desperate to win its first ever Champions League trophy, found it hard going against a disciplined German defense, especially in the first half with forward Kylian Mbappe largely neutralized.
With the return leg in Paris next Tuesday, the winner of the tie will face either Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, who drew 2-2 in their first leg in Germany, in the final at Wembley on June 1.
“It was a well-deserved win, a good team performance,” said Dortmund coach Edin Terzic. “We could have scored more goals, but so could they.”
“That’s why the result is OK from my point of view. We ran a lot, but that’s necessary in a game like this.”
“You have to earn your way to Wembley. All we need now is a draw in the second leg, but we also want to win next week.”
The win also confirmed Germany will get a fifth qualifying spot for next season’s Champions League, with Dortmund being the main beneficiary at the moment, sitting in fifth place in the Bundesliga with three games left to play.
Dortmund went close just before halftime with Marcel Sabitzer but his shot was blocked by Donnaruma. The French side improved after the break and went agonizingly close to an equalizer in the 52nd minute with Mbappe curling a shot onto the far post and then Achraf Hakimi also hitting the woodwork on the rebound.
Four minutes later Fabian Ruiz saw his stooping header sail wide after being left completely unmarked in the box before Dortmund ’keeper Gregor Kobel kept out Ousmane Dembele’s close range effort in the 71st.
Dortmund, the winner in 1997 and looking to reach its first final since 2013, soaked up the pressure as PSG’s Vitinha narrowly missed the target 10 minutes later. • Reuters