Match Review: Dortmund 0-1 Arsenal - Champions League 06.11.13

Another magical European night to add to our collection. Only time will tell where this one ranks alongside the Italian Job and the 1-0 in the Bernabéu, but it's surely up there with the best. Dortmund are most certainly a top team, the type the pundits have been waiting for us to play and falter against.

Having lost at home, it was almost expected that we'd be bested again and that the most we could hope for was a point. I, along with quite a few others, were of a mind that a draw wouldn't be a bad result at all, but to go there and win one nil is an incredible achievement. Dortmund ruined Real Madrid there last year and were unbeaten at home this season. Coming off the back of a good win against Liverpool the season has hit a new high.

For all the talk of heavy metal and symphonies (I'm a massive metalhead by the way), the first half was all a bit Lana Del Rey; disappointing and boring. There was no space and no time on the ball, Dortmund packed the midfield and pressed aggressively as they did at the Emirates. Just like at the Emirates, Arsenal had more of the ball, but struggled to get through the barrage of tackles and tight marking.

It was telling that in the first half we'd attempted 52 passes in the final third, with only 28 being successful. Even more concerning was that we didn't have a single attempt on goal in the first half, while the home team had racked up six before the break, although none of them were on target. There were two heart attack moments for Gunners fans, the first coming from a freekick out on the the left touchline, one which Lewandowski dived to win, a theme that continued throughout the evening.

The ball was whipped into the back post, headed back into the middle and hooked just wide by Subotic. Then Dortmund nearly capitalised on a loss of defensive shape as Gibbs was caught out of posItion and Koscielny was pulled over to one side leaving a gap in the middle. Reus found Mkhitaryan in that space, but unlike in the first game he couldn't find the net.

Apart from those two moments, the sides cancelled each other out, both looking compact and solid at the back and it was goalless at the break.

Things heated up in the second half. Dortmund came out with a lot of intent and immediately put us on the back foot. There was suddenly an intensity and drive to their attacking play and it rattled us. The home side had the ball in the net a couple of times too, but both were ruled out for offside. Szczesny made an excellent save before Reus' follow up was correctly called offside and Nuri Sahin was well offside in the build up to Schmelzer putting the ball in. It looked ominous for the Gunners and I think most expected that it wouldn't be long before we conceded. But, against the run of play, it was the away side that took the lead.

It was probably best summed up by Borussia Dortmund's twitter account, which tweeted 'Wie aus dem nichts' (Out of nowhere). Ramsey and Rosicky played some beautiful one-two flicks, before Rosicky scuffed a return into the path of Sokratis. Fortunately the stand in for Hummels passed it straight back to the Czech midfielder who spread the play to Özil. The magician chipped a gorgeous ball into the box which Giroud fought hard to win cushioning it into the path of Aaron Ramsey. The Welshman fought equally hard to get in front of Subotic to nod the ball past Weidenfeller. The Arsenal fans went wild and for a few moments there was a stunned quiet in the normally boisterous stadium.

You would expect that taking the lead would be akin to kicking a hornet's nest, that Dortmund would come at us with fury and really put us to the sword. But, to me, it seemed that we were more comfortable after we scored to how we were before the goal. Reus did have a very good chance to equalise soon after we took the lead, but he tried to smash it and missed completely.

I think Dortmund expected to be able to contain us, that they would be able to press and hassle and stop us getting the ball forward and break when they won it back. It was a standard counter attacking set up, set out to blunt our attacks and pour forward when we'd committed men forward. But once we'd broken through, Dortmund had to take the game to us. The German side were forced to actively attack us and that opened up space in the middle and the flanks when the full backs had gone forward.

Scoring actually made us more likely to score again and Ramsey nearly did after being picked out by Giroud again, but his volley was saved by Weidenfeller. Giroud himself also nearly scored soon after, but saw his sliding effort cleared off the line by a combination of defender and goalkeeper. Monreal was put on for Cazorla as Dortmund put on Aubameyang in search of goals and he did a great job, adding some fresh legs to press and tackle with intensity.

Dortmund pressed forward but were met with stubborn resistance with Arteta again playing out of his skin, along with the back four. Dortmund's best chance came from a cross that Lewandowski headed over from the 6 yard box. Apart from that, we looked relatively secure in our lead, with no need to bomb forward we kept our shape and suffocated Dortmund. I mentioned earlier that Dortmund had many more shots than us, but of the 15 they took in the game, only 3 found the target and were dealt with by Szczesny, who was excellent again. Vermaelen and Bendtner were both put on late on to help see it out and Arsenal became the first English side to beat Dortmund on their own turf.

Another test passed. Arsenal continue to defy expectations, produce big performances and are starting to look like they could be a very special team this year. You only had to see the looks on the Sky pundits faces to know that were not expected to win that game. We weren't even expected to draw, but you could see that Neville, Redknapp and Ballack were all very surprised that we got the victory.

The result now means we are favourites to top the group and we may be able to qualify if we don't lose to Marseille in game 5, providing Dortmund fail to beat Napoli. If Dortmund and Napoli draw then we simply need to win against Marseille and Draw with Napoli to ensure we top the group and with the form we're in at the moment, you wouldn't bet against us winning both.

On Sunday we travel to Manchester United in the hope we can seal another big result. It'll be as tough as the rest, we go there with masses of confidence but also expectation. It'll be interesting to see how the team plays when they're expected to win a big game. Let's hope that we get the result we want and put the icing on the cake this week has been.

Stat of the game

Between the back four (Sagna, Kos, Mert, Gibbs) only one foul was committed. This was conceded by Sagna at the start of the second half.

Teams

Dortmund (4-2-3-1)
Weidenfeller, Großkreutz, Subotic, Papastathopoulos, Schmelzer, Bender (Hofmann 75'), Sahin, Blaszczykowski (Aubameyang 74'), Mkhitaryan, Reus (Schieber 86'), Lewandowski ■
Subs
Kehl, Hofmann, Aubameyang, Langerak, Kirch, Schieber, Durm

Arsenal (4-2-3-1)
Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Arteta■, Ramsey, Cazorla (Monreal 75'), Özil, Rosicky (Vermaelen 91'), Giroud (Bendtner 90')
Subs
Fabianski, Vermaelen, Monreal, Jenkinson, Hayden, Gnabry, Bendtner

Player Ratings

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