Dortmund's meltdown in injury time in Turin

Until last week and Derby d’ Italia with Inter, Juventus were playing boring, decadent football with a few chances. But something happened on Sunday and the game with Nerrazuri finished with a win in a 4-3 result. And after 50 minutes of tonight’s game with Dortmund, in the first round of the new season of the Champions League, we saw one chance and nothing else. And then, no less than eight goals and four equalizes happened and the hosts came back from the edge of defeat and with two goals in injury time secured a point: Juventus – Borussia 4-4.

It was a fantastic second half after with coach Niko Kovač, who only lost two of 17 Champions League matches as a head coach with Dortmund and Bayern Munich (W10, D5) will feel like a loser. His team had a 4-2 lead four minutes before the end, but allowed two injury time goals and will be furious in the locker room. Borussia took the lead four times, but was denied in the end. They had problems with injured players as Fabio Silva, Nico Schlotterbeck, Niklas Sule, Emre Can, Aaron Anselmino and Julien Duranville were all out, but still fielded a strong squad with only one change from the win over Heidenheim. On the other side coach Tudor decided to give Luis Openda a starting role, since he played in Germany for Leipzig, but it was Serbian striker Vlahović, a former Arsenal target who made all the difference when he came in as sub and with two goals and an assist saved his team from a certain defeat.

The first half started with a terrific shot from Thuram but his strong effort from long range in the 4th minute was tipped over by Kobel, just enough to divert the ball into the corner. And just when it looked that this game could be exciting as it was Juventus – Inter last week, it turned into another boring and dull match for Igor Tudor’s men. Half chances, defense, tactics but no football. Thuram’s chance was basically the only enjoyable thing from the first 45 minutes.

But the second period started with a goal and then it continued with a stunning space. Beier hit the post in the 50th minute and 60 seconds later, Karim Adeyemi finally woke up and took a precise shot in the bottom right corner for the surprise lead. And then three goals were scored in the space of just four minutes! Yildiz scored a beauty from the edge of the penalty area for 1-1 but Nmecha got the ball from Adeyemi and gave the visitors another advantage just two minutes later. Dušan Vlahović came as a sub and scored immediately from a quick counter attack to lever the score for the second time. Players were ‘flying’ it was a battle for every ball and after seven minutes we saw another Dortmund lead, this time from left back Yan Couto. But Juve didn’t manage to score the third equalizer, mainly due to the fact that the referee and the VAR room gave the visitors a suspicious penalty, claiming that Kelly was handballing, even thou he was falling to the ground when the ball hit him in the hands. Guirassy and Bensabainy were arguing who will take the penalty and coach Niko Kovač had to yell from the bench. The Algerian left back was precise and it was 4-2 but Vlahovic scored a brace in injury time to gave the home crowd a bit of hope that the match could end with a draw. That hope never faded and Vlahović assisted Lloyd Kelly in the last minute of the game and former Newcastle defender headed the ball into the net for the pandemonium on the stands in Turin.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - MATCHDAY 1

Tuesday

Athletic Bilbao - Arsenal 0-2 (0-0)

/Martinelli 72, Trossard 87/

PSV - St. Gilloise 1-3 (0-2)

/Van Bommel 90 - David 9 pen, Ait El Hadj 39, Mac Allister 81/

Benfica - Qarabag 2-3 (2-1)

/Barrenechea 6, Pavlidis 16 - Andrade 30, Duran 48, Kashchuck 86/

Juventus - Dortmund 3-4 (0-0)

/Yildiz 64, Vlahovic 68, 90+3, Kelly 90+5 - Adeyemi 52, Nmecha 65, Couto 75, Bensebaini 83 pen/

Real Madrid - Olympique Marseille 2-1 (1-1)

/Mbappe 29 pen, 81 pen - Weah 22/

Tottenham - Villarreal 1-0 (1-0)

/Luiz Junior 4 og/