Story
A look back to 2003: a belly flop in Bruges
Reigning Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund squandered their chance to qualify directly for the UEFA Champions League by finishing the 2002/2003 season in second place with a 1-1 draw against Energie Cottbus on the final matchday. This meant that BVB had to go through the qualifying play-off for the third time after 1999 (vs. FK Teplice) and 2001 (vs. Shakthar Donetsk).
Although so much was at stake, Dortmund - with the notable exception of goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller - were aimless and uninspired in the first leg in Bruges on 13 August 2003. "Blauw en Zwart" (the Black & Blues), as the Belgian champions are known because of their kit colours, completely outclassed the Black & Yellows in the opening 45 minutes. "The way the first half went really gave me misgivings. You can't survive in the Champions League with that kind of attitude," said then BVB managing director Michael Meier. Coach Matthias Sammer watched on helplessly from the bench as "we literally invited them on to attack us. Bruges punished us for our naive style of play, especially in the first half."
A series of mistakes led to BVB conceding the opening goal in the 33rd minute. It all started with André Bergdölmo being robbed of possession by Verheyen. Tomas Rosicky was unable to prevent full-back Van der Heyden from sending in a cross from the left wing following a switch of play. The ball fell kindly for Nastja Ceh, who was left with an easy tap-in. Despite falling behind, Borussia were unable to rise from their slumber and prevent themselves from limiting the damage before half-time. Once again, van der Heyden crossed from the left, Mendoza headed the ball on to Gert Verheyen, who made no mistake in slotting the ball home from 12 metres out (45).
At the start of the second half, Marcio Amoroso managed to reduce the deficit to 2-1 after Brugge goalkeeper Verlinden parried a long-range effort from Jan Koller into his path. forward. Otto Addo then had the chance to equalise after a fantastic solo run, but his shot went just wide of the left-hand upright (62). "I'm glad we didn't manage to score another goal. A 2-2 draw would have been a joke. At least we'll go into the second leg fully focused," said Christian Wörns...
"Score a goal, don't concede one," was therefore the order of the day for the showdown at Strobelallee on 27 August 2003. What followed was a game of "twelve against twelve," Borussia had the 62,000 fans behind them, while Bruges often had referee Riley on their side. The referee had no choice but to send off Mendoza early on after he had fouled Rosicky, but he clearly made a mistake in not ruling out Brugge's opening goal: BVB defender Ahmed Madouni's clumsy challenge on Verheyen was correctly whistled as a free-kick, but the same Verheyen then tore apart the Dortmund defensive wall with brute force to clear the way for Mendoza to score from 18 metres out. This levelled the scoring at 1-1 after Marcio Amoroso had grabbed the opening goal in just the second minute.
The nerves of the crowd were on edge. The then-president Dr. Gerd Niebaum cut a concerned figure from his vantage point in the stands – but soon enough the Black & Yellow faithful had something to celebrate again: Fernandez, who had been on the pitch for just a few seconds, crossed to Ewerthon, who had also been brought on, and he headed the ball home in the 86th minute to make it 2-1. Dortmund were now playing some football again in the frantic final stages, and Koller almost scored what would have been a winning goal to make it 3-1. It wasn't to be, however, as the game went to extra-time.
Ewerthon would have been the hero had he converted Addo's cross after 114 minutes of play. But with the goal gaping, the Brazilian sliced the ball off target. These things happen in football. Especially in games where so much is at stake. Amoroso also came close to scoring, but his effort on target was deflected just wide of the mark in the 96th minute, then he narrowly missed the target in the 106th minute. Referee Riley made another blunder when he failed to call a handball by De Cock in the Brugge penalty area.
And so it came to the last recourse to decide a tie: the penalty shootout. Brugge goalkeeper Tomislav Butina denied both Amoroso and Bergdölmo, while all of the Belgians' penalty-takers found the back of the net. Borussia Dortmund's Champions League dream was over. On Wednesday (18 September, kick-off 21:00 CEST). the Black & Yellows will be hoping for a better result when they kick off the new Champions League season away to FC Brugge.
Boris Rupert