Borussia Dortmund managed to avoid a huge upset in the first leg of the qualifying round in the UEFA Europa League with a 4-3 victory against Odds Ballklubb in Norway. This puts them in a very strong position for the second leg in a week’s time with a chance of qualifying for the group stages of the tournament.

Boris Rupert reports from Skien.

Among the 12,436 spectators in the not quite sold out Skagerak arena, a record crowd, there were 2000 BVB fans who saw their team 3-0 down after just 21 minutes. Three shots and three goals - Samuelsen, Nordkvelle and Ruud scored the host team’s three goals putting them way ahead. Aubameyang shortly before the break and Kagawa straight after the restart reduced the lead to 3-2. Aubameyang then scored the equalizer in the 76th minute and Mkhitaryan took BVB into a 4-3 lead six minutes before the end.

Match Preview

Odds BK had qualified for the play-offs by knocking out Sheriff Tiraspol (3-0, 0-0), Shamrock Rovers (2-0, 2-1) and IF Elfsborg Boras (1-2, 2-0). BVB had made it to the third round by beating Wolfsberger AK 1-0 and 5-0.

The Team

BVB had to do without Sahin, Kirch, Durm and Reus (precautionary measure) as well as Piszczek (hip injury) who was replaced by Castro. Compared to the starting eleven in the recent 4-0 victory in the Bundesliga there were four further changes: Weidenfeller stood in for Bürki in goal and Pfosten, Ginter, Bender and Kampl replaced Sokratis, Weigl and Reus.

Tactics

The Norwegians, who played in a 4-3-3 formation in the league, started off with an extremely defensive 4-5-1 formation from which Samuelsen and Nordkvelle broke away when they saw a crucial opportunity to ruin Dortmund’s gameplay. Apart from that, Occean was left alone up front. BVB changed from the 4-1-4-1 formation they played against Gladbach to 4-2-3-1.

Match Analysis.

Referee De Sousa had to restart the kick-off because Aubameyang ran into the centre circle too early but this was not a wake-up call. Zekhnini got pass Castro on the left hand side of the penalty area and crossed in where the incoming Samuelsen could head his team into an early 1-0 lead from eight metres out. Weidenfeller had no chance as Borussia Dortmund conceded the earliest goal in their Europa cup history after just 14 seconds.

After ninety seconds BVB could have drawn level but the crossbar stopped Kagawa from scoring an equaliser. The woodwork also prevented Mkhitaryan from scoring from 22 metres out after half an hour.

At this point the score line stood 3-0 to Odds BK which should have sealed the match and piled a lot of pressure on Dortmund. In the 19th minute the Norwegians had their first attack since their 1-0 opener in which Occean passed to Nordkvelle, who saw the gap between Castro and Ginter and sprinted into a central position and scored with a shot in the right -hand corner. Three minutes later Ruud hit home with a screamer of a free-kick from 30 metres out, taking the host’s into a 3-0 lead. The ball curved right in front of Weidenfeller.

After the three goal deficit, BVB initially seemed shocked and made a few errors up front but then got back into the game before the end of the first half. Gündogan passed to Aubameyang, who still had to get pass a defender in the penalty area, but the attack came to nothing and was saved by keeper Rossbach. Kampl got the rebound and set up Gündogan whose shot bounced forwarded in front of Rossbach and Aubameyang then scored, reducing the lead to 3-1.

Castro was substituted for Sokratis during half-time and Ginter moved to the right hand side and straight after the restart Borussia Dortmund celebrated their second goal. Bender delivered to Kagawa in the penalty area who sunk the ball in the back of the net after 46 minutes and 19 seconds, bringing the score to 3-2. Shortly after, Gündogan, who was set up by Mkhitaryan, missed with a shot on the turn from 14 metres out which skimmed the goal. He later caused Rossbach further problems with an awkward bouncing shot in the 67th minute. Ginter’s cross met Aubameyang’s foot at the far post nearly bringing Dortmund level in the 70th minute but even as a top scorer he can’t hit the target every time.

However, he proved himself in the 76th minute when he scored and equalised from Schmelzer’s cross. The bench reacted with a sigh of relief since the goal was well-deserved seeing as Dortmund were dwarfing their opponent’s shots on target statistic 17 to 4. Shot number 18 shortly after rattled the bar – Gündogan’s shot was BVB’s third of this bizarre game to hit the woodwork.

In the 84th minute Kagawa took the ball down the left wing against the weakening Norwegian team and crossed in perfectly to the six yard box where Mkhitaryan headed it in. In injury time Rossbach denied Gündogan from extending the lead to 5-3.

Preview

The second leg takes place next Thursday (27. August) at 20:30 at Signal Iduna Park. In the Bundesliga they face FC Ingolstadt away on Sunday at 15:30.