Champions League: Borussia Dortmund 2 Newcastle United 0
[Fullkrug 26, Brandt 79]
One day, and sooner than you think, this Newcastle side will be a frightening force in Europe. Once they can add a little craft to their graft, a little depth to a squad still stretched thin by a relentless schedule. Once they work out how to break down teams who do not simply let themselves be bullied. In short, once they work out how to win games like this.
Borussia Dortmund have now beaten them twice in a fortnight, and while Newcastle can still qualify for the last-16 it will probably need a win in Paris and a favour or two. Put this down as a learning experience: a lesson in how to blend physicality with creativity, how to change the angles of attack, how to make sure your productive spells get rewarded.
Niclas Füllkrug scored in the first half; Julian Brandt sealed the deal with 11 minutes to go, and if there was any mitigation for Newcastle it was the way they continued to fight and press, improving in the second half, even in the thick of an injury crisis that reduced them to 16 senior players and a handful of kids brought along for the ride.
And so Eddie Howe was forced into a little selection gymnastics. Alexander Isak would have been the perfect striker for this game, but he was out. So Callum Wilson continued, looked patently off the pace and had just four touches before being withdrawn at half-time. Kieran Trippier and Tino Livramento were paired together on the right flank for the first time, but both looked far better when Trippier moved to the left in the second half.
None of this was fatal in itself. Newcastle’s plan was clearly to hang tough, hold tight and take the game deep, but it relied on frustrating Dortmund a lot more than they were able to. Instead Dortmund were soon able to shrug off any lingering anxiety from their 4-0 drubbing by Bayern Munich at the weekend, and slot into their familiar swirling patterns. Füllkrug had a fierce medium-range shot saved by Nick Pope, and then so did Karim Adeyemi.
Clearly at some point a relentless schedule of two games a week was going to catch up with a team more used to playing one. Perhaps the most telling indicator of this was the goal, which resulted from Dortmund winning three loose balls in a row on the edge of the Newcastle area. Marcel Sabitzer gratefully accepted the last and rolled it across for Füllkrug to finish high into the net. Newcastle’s defenders stared at each other as if to say: no, I don’t know how that happened either.
Somehow Newcastle made it to half-time, where Howe donned his medical gloves and tweezers and set about patching them up as best he could. Off came Wilson. Off came the struggling Lewis Hall. Anthony Gordon and Miguel Almirón replaced them, and immediately Newcastle looked a more awkward prospect: more bodies in the centre, a higher press, more runners from deep and more varied angles of attack. It almost yielded a prompt response when Joelinton headed Livramento’s cross wide from six yards.
But Newcastle have never looked fully at ease trying to break teams down, and particularly not teams as strong and well-drilled as Dortmund have been this season under Edin Terzic. The second goal came, mystifyingly, from a poor Trippier cross, cleared long to Brandt, who galloped the length of the pitch in a two-on-one attack. With just Livramento in defence, the last scout forlornly defending the hut against a marine attack, Brandt simply went himself, and slotted into the corner.
Not that the travelling support was too morose about any of it. They spent the day camping in the bars and cafes of Dortmund, singing their songs, sinking their bottles of Pilsner, simply enjoying the sensation of being somewhere important again, of being seen again. Newcastle’s fans have already made themselves at home in Europe. Their team, on the other hand, are still working things out. – Guardian
