Post-Match Report
Can's 11th penalty gives BVB a late win
Apart from a headed opportunity for Felix Nmecha from close range, which was saved by St. Pauli goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj (81’), BVB were unable to create any further danger in front of the opposition’s goal after conceding two goals to make it 2-2 in the 63rd and 72nd minutes. Despite 2.57 to 0.57 so-called “xGoals,” i.e. the expected goals based on the scoring chances on both sides, it looked like the game was heading for a 2-2 draw.
When Dr Robin Braun, the fourth official, held up the board showing the amount of added time, Norbert Dickel did not merely announce it. He literally shouted it out into the stadium and roused the whole of SIGNAL IDUNA PARK. “Four minutes!” The energy released was palpable. In the 91st minute, captain Emre Can charged into the penalty area from the right and then passed the ball low into the centre. In the melee, Maximilian Beier failed to connect, and Vasilj cleared the ball.
The game continued without pause with a series of corner kicks. St. Pauli’s Hauke Wahl cleared the fifth BVB corner with his head. Beier followed up on the ball and was fouled by Ricky-Jade Jones at the right corner of the penalty area after 92 minutes and six seconds. Referee Harm Osmers initially awarded a free kick. Then video assistant Johann Pfeifer, who had ensured that a handball penalty (Fabio Silva) for the visitors was retracted in the early stages of the game (16th minute), got involved. The foul in the closing stages took place inside the penalty area. After checking for just under two minutes, the referee from Hanover announced: “A possible penalty for Dortmund has been reviewed. The foul was inside the penalty area.”
Instead of a free kick, there was a penalty. And the weight of responsibility fell on Emre Can’s shoulders. The BVB captain stepped up to take the 11th penalty of his Bundesliga career – and kept his nerve. The stadium clock showed 90 minutes and five seconds when Can fired the ball into the right corner of the net. Vasilj, who had saved a penalty from Serhou Guirassy in the reverse fixture (3-3), flew to the right corner but couldn’t get a hand to the powerful and well-placed shot. 3-2!
Late and happy, as they were a week ago in the 3-3 draw in Frankfurt (not happy then, but well deserved thanks to Carney Chukwuemeka), BVB celebrated an important goal in the sixth minute of stoppage time. “What could be better than scoring a goal in the last minute, in our stadium, and then experiencing the emotions here?” Can asked rhetorically in an interview with Sky afterwards, adding: “It’s indescribable.”
Boris Rupert
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