UCL PLAYER RATINGS | Manchester City 4-1 Borussia Dortmund – Dortmund comfortably second best on the night | OneFootball

Borussia Dortmund looked to continue their unbeaten start to the Champions League league phase, but faced strong competition in Manchester City.

After a tight opening 20 minutes, the Premier League side opened the scoring in the 22nd minute, when Phil Foden was left in too much space and was able to get a shot off from just outside the box, which landed just out of the reach of Gregor Kobel to make it 1-0. 

Dortmund began to unravel after the opener as City began to gain more control of the game and create more chances for themselves. 

Things would get worse for Dortmund in the 29th minute when, who else but former BVB striker Erling Haaland, made it 2-0. 

Die Schwarzgelben struggled to really create anything in attack and registered their first shot on target in the 38th minute of the game, but this was easily dealt with by Gianluigi Donnarumma. 

Dortmund started off the second half more lively, but in a near carbon copy of the opening goal, Foden was not closed down, and he was able to make it 3-0, practically killing the game. 

The visitors gave themselves a chance to get back into the game when Waldemar Anton turned in a Julian Ryerson cross to make it 3-1, however, apart from a few half-chances, die Schwarzgelben were unable to cause any more issues for the City backline. 

Right at the end of the game, as people began to filter out, Rayan Cherki was given the same space Foden was, and the Frenchman was able to make it 4-1. 

It’s safe to say, there were no fireworks tonight, except for in a pre-match show and outside the stadium (as it’s bonfire night). Maybe some Dortmund fans wished they had gone to see 200s pop sensation McBusted (McFly and Busted), at the Co-op Live. 

Takeaway:

What this game showed is that there are limitations in this Dortmund style of play – they do not seem to have a plan B, and are able to take the handbrake off when needed to chase a game. This was kind of shown against Augsburg at the weekend, where they had to grind out a win. 

This style of play is effective when you are winning. When you are chasing a game, like Dortmund were doing, it is more detrimental than beneficial. 

To add to this, as has been pointed out before, Dortmund do not have any sort of creative players who can carry the attacking needs of this team when they need to. 

Manchester City:

Gianluigi Donnarumma (5), Matheus Nunes (5), John Stones (5), Josko Gvardiol (5), Nico O’Reilly (6), Nico Gonzalez (6), Savinho (6), Tijani Reijnders (7), Phil Foden (8), Jeremy Doku (5), Erling Haaland (7)

Others: Rayan Cherki (-), Bernardo Silva (-), Ruben Dias (-), Omar Marmoush (-), Rayan Ait-Nouri (-)

Borussia Dortmund:

Gregor Kobel (6), Julian Ryerson (5), Waldemar Anton (5), Nico Schlotterbeck (6), Ramy Bensebaini (4), Daniel Svensson (4), Marcel Sabitzer (4), Felix Nmecha (5), Maximilian Beier (5), Sehrou Guirassy (5), Karim Adeyemi (5)

Others: Pascal Groß (5), Jobe Bellingham (5), Emre Can (5), Carney Chukwuemeka (5), Fabio Silva (-)

GGFN Man of the Match: Phil Foden (8)

The Englishman was given the freedom of Manchester by the Dortmund defence this evening; too many times they failed to close him down, which allowed him to get a shot off, and twice he was able to score from this exact scenario. In fact, via FotMob, the 25-year-old has four out of his four shots on target, and completed 100% of his dribbles.

With the way that Dortmund were set up and with Nico Schlotterbeck man-marking Erling Haaland, you can tell who the main focus was. However, Niko Kovac’s men forgot about Foden. 

GGFN | Jack Meenan