Manchester, Madrid… Paris? Black & Yellow triumphs in the semi-finals of the Champions League

23 April 1997: Manchester United 0-1 BVB

On 23 April 1997, Borussia Dortmund reached the final of the UEFA Champions League for the first time. Following a 1-0 victory in the first leg, BVB produced a battling defensive performance in the return fixture away to Manchester United and claimed another 1-0 win.

BVB made history in this return leg – and Jürgen Kohler was the protagonist in a defensive battle the likes of which the legendary Old Trafford had never seen. And once again it was Lars Ricken who scored the decisive goal. The 20-year-old got the better of United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel with a placed left-footed shot in the eighth minute after being set up by Andreas Möller.

That goal marked the start of a powerplay by the English champions, a furious siege: attack after attack rained down on the Dortmund goal. But standing in the way were Wolfgang Feiersinger, Martin Kree, Jörg Heinrich, who once again had to line up on the right of defence following Stefan Reuter's substitution, and Jürgen Kohler, who probably had the game of his life in the lion's den. It was unbelievable how he scraped Cantona's shot off the line while laying on the ground, flew across the box to thwart Cole's strike and kept a cool head in every dangerous situation.

The entire team had showed heart and passion to thwart their dominant hosts and ultimately got their reward for a fantastic battle. "This is madness, simply unbelievable. The whole of Germany can be proud of our team," gushed Andreas Möller. The spectators at Old Trafford gave the German champions a standing ovation. And at Münster/Osnabrück Airport, well over a thousand fans greeted the "heroes of Manchester" after they landed late at night. 

30 April 2013: Real Madrid 2-0 BVB

On 30 April 2013, Borussia Dortmund reached the final of the world's most important club competition for the second time. After a 4-1 victory in the first leg, BVB had to endure some anxious minutes away to Real Madrid in the return leg and edged through with a 2-0 loss – their first of the Champions League campaign – in front of 69,429 spectators.

As proclaimed, Real Madrid set to work on "La Remontada" – the comeback – and put the Black & Yellows under constant pressure from the start in order to cancel out their 4-1 loss in the first leg. Jose Mourinho's team played at an unbelievably high tempo and forced BVB into mistakes. Things got dangerous on the right side of attack in particular several times in the opening quarter of an hour. And it would have certainly already been 2-0 had Roman Weidenfeller not impressively demonstrated his abilities once again. The way he thwarted Higuain (4) and Ronaldo (13) in moments of grave danger was world-class. "You can't play better than that," praised goalkeeping coach Wolfgang de Beer. "It was an A+. Roman kept us in the match." And with Mesut Özil also spurning a great opportunity, BVB held onto their clean sheet.

The Black & Yellows then had several opportunities to take the lead in the second period: the Royals seemed to have only the slimmest chance of progressing for a long time, while BVB had the match completely under control. Things only got tense from the 82nd minute onwards, after Kaka had played in Özil on the right flank and Benzema had fired Real Madrid 1-0 up in the middle. When Ramos was then not closed down in the 88th minute and hammered the ball into the roof of the net from close range, Real threw everything forward and played with four strikers, leaving the nerves of every Black & Yellow stretched to the limit.

Especially because referee Howard Webb allowed six additional minutes to be played. Neven Subotic said: "When I saw that, I thought I would die." Neven did of course not die a premature death; he was there when the Borussia Dortmund team ran out onto the pitch at Wembley Stadium in London on 25 May 2013...

By Wilfried Wittke and Boris Rupert