The Sporting Lisbon - Dortmund match on the evening of November 24 is considered an early final between the two teams. If winning by two or more goals, the home team will win tickets to the 1/8 Champions League round one match early. Dortmund can also complete the task if they win this match.
Before direct competition, the German team had to pay the price without Erling Haaland. The attack led by Marco Reus played ineffectively in front of goalkeeper Antonio Adan. They shot nine times, but only scored one goal.
Sporting Lisbon only needed 42% possession. In the 30th minute, the home team clearly showed the effectiveness of their counter-attack when they passed a long pass for Pedro Goncalves to face goalkeeper Kobel to open the scoring.
Dortmund's defense also contributed to an easy victory for the opponent. In the 39th minute, from a careless clearance of the away team defender, Goncalves quickly shot from far to increase the score to 2-0.
Having a headache about the score, Dortmund also has a problem of force. Midfielder Emre Can had to receive a red card directly in the 74th minute due to the error of overreacting after a collision with an opponent player. Playing in the 10 against 11, Dortmund soon conceded the third goal. Goncalves missed a chance to score a hat-trick when he kicked a penalty in the 81st minute into the hands of goalkeeper Kobel, but Porro rushed in to head in to make it 3-0.
Dortmund only removed one goal in the 90+3 minute. Donyell Malen, who was bought after the team sold Jadon Sancho to Man Utd, put the ball into the net of Sporting after an attack from the left.
After the victory over Dortmund, Sporting got nine points from five games, jumped to second place in Group C and created a three-point gap over the opponent. Due to only one match left, the Portuguese team soon won tickets to the 1/8 round. If they leveled the gap in the last match, Dortmund would not be able to regain second place. While equal on 3-3 head-to-head points, Sporting has the advantage of 3-2 head-to-head difference. In Group C, Ajax soon won the first ticket when winning all five matches.
This is the first season that Dortmund has to go down to the Europa League since the 2017-2018 season. In the last three seasons, the yellow and black shirt team entered the round of 16 twice and the quarterfinals once. In the 2017-2018 season, Dortmund only ranked third in the group stage when facing Tottenham and Real Madrid.
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