Pre-Match Report
Dickel and Chapuisat – Borussia's heroes in meetings with Celtic
A year after almost being relegated and only avoiding the drop at the last minute thanks to the "Wegmann goal", Borussia Dortmund returned to the European football stage in 1987. The first-round tie in the UEFA Cup against Celtic was a football festival on the pitch and in the stands. The friendship formed with the hard-drinking Scots continues to this day. Borussia won 2-0 thanks to late goals from Norbert Dickel (74/86).
On this day in 1987, 29 September, 54,000 spectators in the sold-out Westfalenstadion gave both teams a great reception. Just as they had been applauded in the first leg in Glasgow, the Dortmund crowd enthusiastically greeted both teams. Borussia looked to come back after falling behind 2-1 on the scoresheet, but Celtic held firm. Time was running out. In the middle of the second half, coach Reinhard Saftig rolled the dice. He took defender Dirk Hupe out of the game and replaced him with young striker Daniel Simmes. Now the waves of attack swept like a hurricane towards the visitors' goal, where keeper McKnight felt the thunder of the South Stand behind him. In the 74th minute, the Black & Yellows finally got the breakthrough they'd been looking for: Norbert Dickel was the goalscorer. The stadium went wild. And when the Dortmund centre forward scored again 13 minutes later, strangers were hugging each other. "The South Stand has a vacuum cleaner effect, it draws you in," said Dickel after the game. BVB advanced to the next round. However, their journey ended in the round of 16 after a 5-0 defeat in Bruges.
Five years later, this time in the second round of the UEFA Cup, Ottmar Hitzfeld sent a fully offensive Borussia onto the pitch in front of 35,803 fans (the maximum allowed) in the sold-out Westfalenstadion. In addition to the three forwards, with Stéphane Chapuisat and Flemming Povlsen repeatedly cutting in from the wings (Frank Mill, however, was ineffective in the centre), Michael Lusch and Knut Reinhardt also caused problems for Celtic down the flanks. Bodo Schmidt and Michael Schulz (Günter Kutowski was missing due to a stomach flu) marked the Scottish forwards out of the game. Schulz even had the chance to show his prowess going forwards on several occasions.
Dortmund skilfully moved the ball, forcing the Scots back into their own half, but the Black & Yellows only created a few clear goalscoring opportunities. Celtic had issues defending their right flank, and it was down this side that Chapuisat scored the winning goal in the 71st minute..
The Swiss had found his form after a rather weak start to the season and was the outstanding man in the 2-1 away win. "At the beginning, Borussia had to be feared, but later Dortmund triumphed in the Celtic Park pressure cooker and deservedly advanced to the last sixteen," wrote kicker. Schulz earned one of the top marks, as he had in the first leg, and, together with libero Stefan Reuter, ensured that the Scots barely had a sniff at goal after they took an early 1-0 lead. Chapuisat equalised in the 53rd minute and set up Michael Zorc for the winning goal just five minutes later. This time, Borussia went all the way to the final against Juventus.
Boris Rupert