Lazio travel to the Signal Iduna Park this evening in Champions League Group F action. Either side can guarantee themselves a place in the knockout stages by achieving a win tonight. Lazio may feel as though this is more achievable after the news of Erling Haaland’s hamstring injury, which keeps him out of the squad. The young Norwegian striker has scored six goals in Dortmund’s four Champions League games and his ruthless finishing will be sorely missed .
Harry Buckett will be taking you through the action.
Starting Lineups:
KICK OFF We are underway in Germany.
2′ Dortmund starting this game with high intensity. Marco Reus uses his pace to progress up the pitch. Jude Bellingham has a shot blocked and out for a corner.
3′ Thorgen Hazard’s first time cross goes through everyone and nearly catches Pepe Reina out, but he holds onto the ball. Dortmund are looking threatening in the opening moments.
9′ Dortmund still piling all the pressure on Lazio, who haven’t really had a look in so far. They are holding off the German attack fairly well though at the moment, not allowing them to shoot from inside the box.
Embed from Getty Images
15′ Lazio finally find a gap and a ball is slotted through to Ciro Immobile in the box. He is closed down before he can get a shot away. Certainly a lot more encouraging play from the Italian side.
19′ A bit of controversy here as Bellingham is wiped out on the edge of the box, however play continues. Looks to be a definite foul, with no attempt to play the ball. Lazio very lucky to get away with that.
20′ CHANCE Great chance for Lazio. Immobile plays a clever pass through to Joaquin Correa to give him a one on one opportunity. Roman Bürki makes himself big and blocks the effort. Correa goes down as he shoots and claims he was pulled down, but looking at the replay there’s not much in it at all.
25′ Bellingham is brought down again on the edge of the box and play is continued, just like last time. Hazard picks up the loose ball and goes for goal but it is way off target.
29′ CHANCE What an opportunity for Lazio. Excellent quick passing allows them to break into the penalty area. Immobile squares it to Francesco Acerbi and somehow he misses from six yards out. Luckily for Acerbi it turns out he was in fact offside, so it wouldn’t have counted anyway.
Embed from Getty Images31′ CHANCE Now it’s Dortmund who come close. A powerful strike from Hazard is parried away by Reina and straight into the path of Reus. He goes for goal on the volley and is very unlucky to see it bounce just wide of the post. I’m not sure how we haven’t had a goal yet in this game, surely one is just over the horizon.
37′ Mateu Morey reads the movement of Correa perfectly and dispossess him of the ball before he can threaten Bürki’s goal. Top defending from the Spanish Debutant, he has looked bright in the first half.
44′ GOAL (DOR) Raphaël Gurreiro opens the scoring. Fast paced build up play finishes with a first time pass from Hazard into the box. Reus realises he is offside so leaves it for Gurreiro, who beats Reina to the ball and pokes it home. A goal has been coming in this game and Dortmund have probably deserved it more.
Embed from Getty ImagesHALF TIME Borussia Dortmund 1-0 Lazio
A late first half goal is all that seprates Dortmund and Lazio as we go into half time. Both sides have had a good showing so far but you have to say Dortmund have been the better side. They have had more attacking intent and have always look like they could score when they go forward.
Lazio have struggled a bit when looking for that final pass in the final third, but have still managed to cause Dortmund problems at times. This game is by no means over for Lazio, and the tide could very easily change in the second half.
46′ And we are back in action in Group F. Lazio have all the work to do.
50′ SAVE Giovanni Reyna tests the keeper with a venomous low driven effort. Reina reacts quickly and gets a hand to the ball.
55′ INJURY Reyna is struggling after a coming together with Luis Alberto. He is going to continue for now, although there’s a good possibility he may be subbed off if it continues to bother him.
58′ Reina cuts out a dangerous ball across the face of goal from Morey. He was well alert there and cut out the chance quickly.
Embed from Getty Images
60′ Sergej Milinković-Savić has a go from distance and hits it well. Bürki is able to deal with it as it was struck relatively central.
61′ SAVE Great stop from Bürki keeps it at 1-0. Immobile shoots first time from the edge of the box and Bürki is able to turn it round the post for a corner. The closes Lazio have come yet and the biggest challenge the Dortmund keeper has faced.
64′ Wesley Hoedt sends crosses the ball from the left hand side that nearly curls into the top right corner. I don’t think he meant that but it wasn’t far away.
66′ PENALTY What was originally given as a free kick for Lazio is now a penalty after VAR alerted the referee of the mistake through his earpiece. Having said that I don’t think it was even a foul in the first place. Milinković-Savić is already going down before Nico Schultz makes any contact. This may prove to be a very controversial decision.
67′ GOAL (LAZ) Immobile converts the spot kick, firing into the bottom left corner.
Embed from Getty Images69′ CHANCE Almost an immediate response. Schultz nearly redeems himself for giving away the penalty however his shot fizzes across the face of goal. So close for the left back.
70′ SUB Manuel Lazzari and Jean Akpa replace Mohamed Fares and Lucas Leiva.
75′ Andreas Pereira takes ages before shooting and his shot is blocked in the box. A really good chance for Pereira there, he had no one around him and should have done better with that.
78′ CHANCE Akanji’s free kick deflects of the wall and sets up Thomas Delaney for a volley. He snatches at the chance and it goes wide. There were also some shout for some handball, after the original freekick shot was blocked, but there’s not much in the claims.
80′ SUB Milinković-Savić and Luis Alberto are replaced by Gonzalo Escalante and Felipe Caicedo. With these attacking substitues it looks like Simone Inzaghi fancies his sides chances at his squad going on and winning this.
86′ Reina breathes a sigh of relief as Bellingham’s optimistic long range strike comes straight at him.
87′ SAVE What a stop from Bürki to prevent a late winner. Immobile hits a first time half volley from outside the area that looks like it’s destined to go into the bottom corner. Bürki gets across to his right hand side and tips the ball away with his fingertips. He has really kept them in it this half, his teammates are indebted to his performance.
90′ There will be four minutes of added time. Can either side find a winner?
90+1′ INJURY Hummels is down in the box after Immobile inadvertently stepped on his ankle. He is helped off the pitch by his teammates and Immobile and will receive treatment on the side-line.
90+4′ SAVE Bürki keeps it level again. Pereira couldn’t have struck that freekick any sweeter, it’s just a wonder save from the Dortmund number one.
90+5′ Lazio players are screaming for a penalty as the ball appears to strike Axel Witzel on the arm. The referee does blow the whistle, but for full time rather than a penalty. No VAR check was made, and the Lazio players still make their cases heard to the officials after the game. I don’t see why he couldn’t have gone over to the screen to check it before ending the game as it was such a tight decision. Perhaps this decison and the earlier penalty have now balanced eachother out.
FULL TIME Borussia Dortmund 1-1 Lazio
Embed from Getty ImagesLazio fight back to share the points after Immobile converts a penalty. Dortmund will be frustrated that the penalty was given in the first place as Milinković-Savić appeared to have dived. However Lazio may also feel they deserved another in the dying embers of the game and there will be some discussion as to whether it was. This was a big decision in the game as if Lazio had scored it, they would now be through to the knockout stages. Instead they will need to get any result other than a loss against Club Brugge next week, to achieve that second place spot.
For Dortmund though, a point was enough. They will be playing in the next round of the competition. They look ahead to their match against Zenit next week, a team who are yet to record a victory in the group.
For more Overtime sport content click here and for more football content click here.
