Pre-Match Report
The penalty drama of Auxerre: a smiling Stefan and a crying Stéphane
BVB have contested four penalty shoot-outs in their long European history. Once before in France. It ended in smiles for the team in Black & Yellow. Stefan Klos, Bodo Schmidt and Uwe Grauer take a look back.
Borussia Dortmund missed out on the title in the last five minutes of the 1991/92 season. Instead of the new Champions League, the runners-up went into the UEFA Cup, derided by Franz Beckenbauer as the "Cup of Losers". But for the Black & Yellows, it turned out to be a blessing and a bonanza, laying the economic and sporting foundations for the 1995 and 1996 Bundesliga wins and the 1997 Champions League triumph. After the quarter-final stage of the three European cup competitions at the time, BVB were the last German club standing and got more or less the entire money pot to themselves. The longer Borussia stayed in the competition, the more generous the payouts.
After defeating La Valetta (1-0, 7-2), Celtic (1-0, 2-1), Real Zaragoza (a 3-1 win, a 2-1 loss) and AS Roma (a 1-0 loss in the first leg followed by a 2-0 win in the second ), Borussia Dortmund advanced to the semi-finals. Their opponents were AJ Auxerre, one of the top four clubs in France at the time, and even champions in 1995. The draw resulted in BVB having to play the first leg at home.
After a goalless first half, substitute Steffen Karl made it 1-0 in the 58th minute. Shortly afterwards, captain Michael Zorc had the chance to increase the lead from the penalty spot, but the usually assured penalty taker fluffed his lines on this occasion. The following 30 minutes could then be labelled "Zorc versus Auxerre", as the midfielder toiled and fought to make up for his miss. In the 87th minute, he found the back of the net with a header to make it 2-0.
2,500 supporters from Dortmund were given a very warm welcome for the return leg on 20 April 1993. However, the friendship ended as soon as Belgian referee Frans van den Wijngaert blew his whistle to get the action underway at the "Abbe Deschamps" stadium. Auxerre coach Guy Roux had set the hosts up brilliantly after the 2-0 defeat in the first leg, and they barely gave Dortmund a chance to breathe. "Steffen Karl and Michael Zorc had put us in a very good position with their two goals in the first leg, but this cushion was reduced to a single goal after just eight minutes in the second leg," recalled Bodo Schmidt, who formed the centre-back partnership alongside Günter Kutowski. Corentin Martins scored in the eighth minute to make it 1-0 to the French side.
"Auxerre put us under incredible pressure right from the start," said Schmidt, adding: "The game was played at a high tempo. One attack followed the next. At least our boys up top were able to relieve the pressure from time to time so that we could catch our breath at the back. Nevertheless, I can hardly remember a game in which we were under so much pressure. Ottmar Hitzfeld had already warned us that Auxerre were very strong at home. We really felt it, especially as we were missing a lot of important players."
Roughneck central defender William Prunier left a strong impression with his maverick style of defensive play, and Borussia - who were forced to field a patchwork team - went from one sticky situation to the next. It was only a matter of time before Frank Verlaat levelled the score in the 72nd minute. In Schmidt's words: "We fought back tooth and nail against the threat of elimination. I remember that I somehow managed to scramble to clear the ball off the line. The tension was crazy! When you've made it that far in the European Cup, you really want to get to the final." With a bit of good fortune, BVB - down to ten men after Kutowski was sent off in the 99th minute - survived extra time. "That certainly didn't make our job any easier. But somehow we managed not to concede another goal."
A penalty shoot-out was needed to decide the tie. And no-one who experienced this thriller live - whether in person, on television or in front of the big screen on Friedensplatz - has forgotten it. Steffen Karl, as confident as ever, grabbed the ball to safely slot home penalty number one: "The first one has to go in, that makes it easier for the others." Vahirua equalised, Chapuisat scored to make it 2-1, and so it continued: 2-2 Prunier, 3-2 Reinhardt, 3-3 Laslandes, 4-3 Schulz, who "went into cardiac arrest for a few seconds" before taking it, 4-4 Verlaat, 5-4 Zorc, 5-5 Dutuel. The next takers had to be determined.
Michael Rummenigge had wanted to sneak away when coach Ottmar Hitzfeld approached him and ordered: "You're taking one now, don't argue. You can do it." Rummenigge of all people, who was not at all comfortable stepping up. "I felt uneasy, because I'd previously missed two penalties," admitted the skilled technical player. But he steeled himself and left Auxerre goalkeeper Lionel Charbonnier with no chance.
Schmidt's mind was spinning: "I felt a bit queasy because I was in danger of having to take a penalty myself. Apart from me, we only had one other player who had offered themselves up, because a team-mate - I won't tell you his name - had refused. I didn't want to be the one to miss and ruin our dreams of making it to the final." That one other player was Uwe Grauer, not even signed on a professional contract, who had only travelled to Auxerre due to the shortage of personnel and had to be substituted on for the stricken Ned Zelic in the 104th minute. "The tension was palpable," Grauer recalls. Between 1991 and 1994, the Dortmund native made a total of 25 appearances for the first team and 106 games for the "amateurs", as the U23s were known at the time. "Then Michael Rummenigge scored for us and Stefan Klos saved their last one. What many people don't know was that I was standing by. I would have been our next taker. Michael Henke had asked me a few minutes earlier if I thought I could do it - and I just nodded. I was actually a confident penalty taker, but at a moment like that, of course, I felt in over my head," says Grauer.
In the end, Grauer was no longer required to take one. After the first five takers from both teams had converted, Rummenigge stepped up and scored, just as Hitzfeld had ordered. Auxerre defender Stéphane Mahé was the next player to step up to the spot: "I said to myself: now it's time for you to save one," said BVB goalkeeper Stefan Klos afterwards. He became the "hero of Auxerre" with this act - and then had to stave off the risk of being crushed by his team-mates and coaches, who jumped on him in celebration. "Well, I actually only saved one - and it was late on," Klos said years later about his exploits, adding: "I had goosebumps every time the people in the south stand sang that song when we came out for the warm-up. I have very fond memories of that."
As the personnel situation failed to improve and in fact worsened, the team had no chance in the final, played over two legs back then, against Juventus, losing 3-1 and 3-0. Silverware only came in 1995, with back-to-back Bundesliga titles, the Champions League and the Club World Cup.
And Stéphane Mahé, who was inconsolable on the evening of 20 April 1993? The following year, he won the Coupe de France with Auxerre, then the European Cup Winners' Cup with Paris Saint-Germain and numerous titles during his four-year spell at Celtic.
It was BVB's first penalty shoot-out at European level. Three more were to follow. Will there be another one in France, 32 years after the showdown in Auxerre?
Boris Rupert
