Borussia Dortmund
scored twice in added time to seal a dramatic 3-2 quarter-final,
second-leg win at home to Malaga on Tuesday to reach the last four of
the UEFA Champions League.
With Malaga leading 2-1 in the dying stages, Dortmund's Marco Reus
gave his side a glimmer of hope with a 91st-minute equaliser, but the
Spaniards would still have gone through on away goals. In the frantic
closing seconds, Reus managed to stab the ball across the Malaga goal
for Brazilian centre-back Felipe Santana to toe the ball over the line
for the crucial third Dortmund goal to put the Germans in the last four.
Dortmund
go through 3-2 on aggregate after last Wednesday's first leg finished
goalless and are into the semi-finals for the first time since
1998. Malaga winger Joaquin had given the Spaniards an early away goal before Poland striker Robert Lewandowski's equaliser made it 1-1 at the break.
Second-half substitute Eliseu
then looked to have put Malaga in the semis in their debut season in
Europe's top club competiton with a goal eight minutes from time, before
Dortmund produced two goals in two magical minutes. It was heart-break
for Manuel Pellegrini's side after the Malaga coach had to make a
round-trip to his native Chile following the death of his father in the
days before the game.
Dortmund continue
their run as the only unbeaten team in the competition, but the winning
goal came as late as the 93rd minute at the Signal Iduna Park. Despite
the hosts' bright start, a mistimed clearing header from Dortmund
centre-back Santana gave Malaga their first chance on 25 minutes, which
the Spaniards pounced on to score the early away goal the Germans had
dreaded.
When the ball fell to Joaquin, the former Spain
winger pulled the ball back onto his left foot, out of reach of his
marker Marcel Schmelzer, and rolled his shot through the legs of Neven
Subotic and past goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller. It meant Dortmund had to score twice, but they needed only 15 minutes to draw level as Germany star Marco Reus sublimely flicked on a pass between his legs and into the path of striker Lewandowski.
Despite
the attention of three defenders, the Poland star needed no further
invitation to slot in his sixth goal of the competition. Dortmund had a
nervous final few seconds of the half as an unmarked Joaquin came close to netting a second for Malaga.
Lewandowski
forced Willy Caballero into a diving save early in the second half,
while Weidenfeller produced an outstanding parry to keep out Joaquin's header which looked destined for the bottom corner. Eliseu
looked to have wrapped it up, 12 minutes after coming off the bench,
when he knocked Julio Baptista's rolling, goal-bound shot past
Weidenfeller from close range to leave Dortmund reeling.
But with the hosts pushing forward frantically, left-back Jesus Gamez was tackled by Santana, and the loose ball fell to Marco Reus,
who stroked it in to give Dortmund hope. And Santana was Dortmund's
11th-hour hero when he stabbed the ball over the line in a desperate
scramble after Marco Reus's shot across goal.
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