Borussia Dortmund 1-1 Lille: First leg ends level after Adeyemi’s opener

It was a tale of two halves at the Signal Iduna Park as the first leg between Dortmund and Lille ended on level terms, with both sides putting in ‘Dr. Jeckyll and Mr Hyde’ performances over the two halves.

Karim Adeyemi gave Borussia Dortmund the lead in the first-half with a low and powerful effort from range. Die Schwarzgelben looked the better side and began the tie strongly, but after coming out from the break the roles were reversed, and Lille were the team playing with confidence.

Pressure from the away side was growing and Jonathan David eventually set up Hákon Arnar Haraldsson to score his second goal in the Champions League. The home fans showcased their dissatisfaction towards their team at various stages through the second half.

As it happened

In the early stages, the hosts were looking to get Adeyemi on the ball as much as possible to utilise his blistering space. The German international dribbled past Ismaily to put the Lille goal in his sights, but Lucas Chevalier easily dealt with his tame effort.

On the other flank, Jamie Gittens has been making a name for himself this season. The young English winger showcased his ability with the ball at his feet, before slipping a pass through to Serhou Guirassy. The striker spent a short period of time with the visitors, but was unable to make his former side pay as his effort was powerful but wide of the goal.

Both sides were struggling to impose themselves on the other, cheaply giving away possession time and time again as the first half went on.

Borussia Dortmund were looking to make home advantage in front of the Yellow Wall, and the fans in yellow and black were soon celebrating when Adeyemi scored the opening goal in style. Lille thought they had cleared away a Dortmund corner, but it fell invitingly towards the 23-year-old, who didn’t need to think twice about shooting. The ball nestled into the bottom corner as Adeyemi ran off celebrating his fifth goal in the competition this season.

Lille were trying to get back into the game, but the absence of several key men in attack was apparent. Rémy Cabella spent the last month out and was limited to an unused substitute in Lille’s loss against PSG at the weekend. Meanwhile, while they are also awaiting the return of Edon Zhegrova who played a crucial role when Lille picked up points against Juventus and Atletico Madrid in the league phase.

Borussia Dortmund thought they had doubled their lead in the tie right on the stroke of halftime when Pascal Groß reacted quickly to tap home, but their joy was short-lived, as the linesman quickly put his flag up and replays showed there was no reason for VAR to intervene.

Following the interval it was the away side who was having the majority of possession. After trying to fashion a chance, David was brought down by Nico Schlotterbeck, giving the referee a decision to make. Unfortunately for the Canadian, there was not enough to award a penalty in the eyes of the VAR. As Lille grew more and more into the game, the Dortmund supporters were starting to become unhappy with what they were seeing, and made it known from the stands.

The away side’s pressure finally paid off when David dropped deep, creating space for Haraldsson to run into. David played a smart pass in behind, and the Icelandic international recovered from initially stumbling to poke it past the onrushing Gregor Kobel. As the Lille players celebrated, the boos began to ring out from the Dortmund fans; it was now going far from smoothly for Niko Kovač’s men.

After spending the first 45 minutes as the better side, the second half was far from ideal for Borussia Dortmund. Any momentum they had was lost when they emerged from the break, and Lille were gaining more and more encouragement that they could take a lead back from Germany ahead of the second leg in a week’s time. But, in the end, the pair had to settle for a level scoreline.

It was telling for the quality of the clash that the two goals came from the only two shots on target. Lille can come away more positively after the dissatisfaction shown from the stands towards the home side after how they finished the game, but the tie is now perfectly poised for the return leg at the Decathlon Arena.

The lineups

BVB: Kobel; Ryerson, Can, Schlotterbeck, Svensson; Sabitzer, Groß; Adeyemi, Brandt, Gittens: Guirassy

LOSC: Chevalier; Meunier, Diakité, Alexsandro, Ismaily; Mukau, André, Bouaddi; Haraldsson, David, Mbappé