Borussia Dortmund made it to the round of 16 in the Europa League, needing all their luck to come away with a 1-1 draw away to Atalanta on Thursday night to win the tie 4-3 on aggregate.
Ultimately, two goalkeeping errors preceded both goals. For Dortmund, it was substitute Marcel Schmelzer who became the unlikely hero, scoring the equaliser in the 83rd minute with his right foot. Atalanta goalkeeper Etrit Berisha had spilled a harmless shot of Marco Reus by knocking the ball out of his own hands with his knee.
Positives
The fact that Dortmund are getting the results they need despite scrappy performances is the only positive at the moment. Sunday's 1-0 win over Gladbach was similarly fortunate for the Black and Yellows but the first half of the season has shown that such torrid performances have a tendency to catch up with them eventually.
Negatives
BVB are building a house of cards on a foundation of luck and coincidence. Atalanta punished them early in the match for their lack of footballing ideas combined with inept defending. Under Peter Stoger, Dortmund look devoid of ideas as to how to progress the ball into the attacking third other than punting it downfield and hoping to pick up the second ball. The positional play was sub-par, the passing was easy to anticipate and their movement too lazy to evade Atalanta's simple man-marking scheme.
Despite all their individual quality up front, Dortmund are overly reliant on their opponents to make a mistake. If this is the plan, it's bound to fail against better teams.
Manager rating out of 10
3 -- Stoger cannot implement a positional play that would help his players to create triangles and combinations. As a result, Dortmund are horrible to watch at the moment.
Player ratings (1-10; 10 = best. Players introduced after 70 minutes get no rating)
GK Roman Burki, 4 -- After a 10/10 performance at the weekend, Burki showed his European form by only punching air as he tried to clear Atalanta's first corner. Rafael Toloi pounced to score the opener after 10 minutes. The keeper somewhat redeemed himself with a vital intervention to deny Alejandro Gomez in the 82nd minute.
DF Lukasz Piszczek, 3 -- Due to Dortmund's lack of ingenuity in their build-up play, they're forced to build down the wings. The 32-year-old veteran misplaced 32 of 71 passes, underscoring the sad truth that his glory days are long behind him.
DF Sokratis Papastathopoulos, 4 -- Went into the book for an unnecessary tactical foul after 17 minutes.
DF Omer Toprak, 4 -- Showed once again his solid build-up play but made too many defensive errors that only Burki could tidy up.
DF Jeremy Toljan, 2 -- Due to a lack of build-up through the middle, it was especially harmful to Dortmund that Toljan misplaced five of nine passes in the first 11 minutes. He only managed to complete 16 out of 26 passes before his merciful half-time substitution.
MF Nuri Sahin, 3 -- Bryan Cristante placed an uncontested header just wide after 26 minutes as Sahin failed to make a defensive run. Julian Weigl, who was suspended for this match, has absolutely nothing to fear for his starting spot.
MF Mahmoud Dahoud, 3 -- Just like Sahin, the defensive midfielder had nearly no positive impact as BVB struggled to create chances.
MF Christian Pulisic, 3 -- The slump of the 19-year-old continues. Atalanta created most of their attacks in the first half by waiting for Pulisic to run head first into a wall and lose the ball.
MF Mario Gotze, 6 -- Due to his footballing intelligence, Gotze was the only player to create lethal combinations. It was not hard to be Dortmund's best player of the day.
MF Andre Schurrle, 5 -- Was on the end of the visitor's only chance created from open play after 80 minutes. But Berisha had his side volley, aimed at the near post, covered.
FW Michy Batshuayi, 5 -- Had to constantly drop back for his teammates to have any passing option. Unfortunately, he was then missing up front where he could have been involved in scoring chances.
Substitutes
DF Marcel Schmelzer, 5 -- Was a more astute passer than Toljan after making his comeback from a muscle injury in the second half. It was, however, far from adding any edge to BVB's attacking play and his goal was more dumb luck than anything else.
MF Marco Reus, 5 -- Inadvertently assisted Schmelzer's goal by shooting from a desperate position. Reus invigorated BVB's attack visibly as he came on for Pulisic for the final half-hour.
FW Alexander Isak, NR -- Only registered one touch after coming on in the 82nd minute for Dahoud.