Borussia Dortmund are in control of their UEFA Champions League play-off destiny, having fought to claim a three-goal lead in Lisbon ahead of next week’s second leg.
Sporting forced the best chance of the first half in front of their home crowd, but were left shellshocked on the hour mark when a Serhou Guirassy broke the deadlock.
Pascal Groß and Karim Adeyemi added to die Schwarzgelben‘s lead, handing Niko Kovač’s side a comfortable lead ahead of next week’s fixture in Dortmund.
As it happened
Niko Kovač’s second match in charge of Borussia Dortmund got off to a cagey start at the Estádio José Alvalade, with the visitors penned pack for much of the half as Sporting peppered Gregor Kobel’s goal with countless chances to break the deadlock.
Conrad Harder saw an effort fly high and wide of the post from an offside position shortly before the quarter-hour mark, with a fierce driven effort from Maximiliano Araújo rattling the crossbar from outside the box mere moments later.
Kobel would be by far the busier of the two goalkeepers throughout the half, and was forced to deny Harder once more with a little over thirty minutes on the clock after the Sporting frontman struck a swerving strike that forced a fine save from the Swiss ‘keeper.
The chances kept coming for Tuesday’s hosts, but João Simões could only roll a tame effort straight towards Kobel from a promising Harder cutback. It looked to be a mistake that would cost the Portuguese side, as Jamie Bynoe-Gittens saw his strike flash wide of the far post before an offside effort from Serhou Guirassy missed the target too.
Those dying stages of the first half swung proceedings in the visitors’ favour, with a low strike from Karim Adeyemi forcing a save from Rui Silva to spark sheer domination from die Schwarzgelben.
Guirassy would be the man to break the deadlock on the hour mark, nodding home from Julian Brandt’s cross before registering the assist for Pascal Groß’ tap in at the back post eight minutes later.
Tuesday’s clash was surely wrapped up at that point – but with this play-off taking place over two legs, Dortmund were keen to add to their advantage and Adeyemi did just that inside the final ten minutes, bundling home from another Brandt cross.
Niko Kovač’s men now have one foot in the round-of-16 of the UEFA Champions League, and will look to wrap up their progression to the next stage of the competition next Wednesday when they face Sporting at the Westfalenstadion.
The lineups
SPO: Silva; Reis, St Juste, Diomande, Fresneda; Simões, Debast; Araújo, Trincão, Quenda; Harder
BVB: Kobel; Svensson, Schlotterbeck, Can, Ryerson; Groß, Sabitzer; Bynoe-Gittens, Brandt, Adeyemi; Guirassy