Dortmund ease into Champions League last 16 after Sporting stalemate
DORTMUND: Borussia Dortmund cruised into the last 16 of the Champions League after a goalless draw with Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday sealed a 3-0 aggregate victory. Serhou Guirassy missed a second-half penalty but it mattered for nothing in the end as last season’s finalists were rarely troubled by Sporting and coasted through. Dortmund’s reward is a last 16 game against Aston Villa or Lille. It was always a tough ask for this young Sporting side ravaged by injury to overturn the damage done in last week’s first leg, when Guirassy, Pascal Gross and Karim Adeyemi all scored. Dortmund dominated much of the return leg on a freezing night in Germany, with Marcel Sabitzer coming closest to breaking the deadlock with a rasping drive from distance that Sporting goalkeeper Rui Silva did well to palm around his post. After the break, Dortmund got the chance to put the tie to bed from the spot when Silva was adjudged to have brought down Adeyemi in the box after Nico Schlotterbeck’s long pass split the visitors’ defense. But Guirassy’s well-hit penalty was saved superbly by the Portuguese goalkeeper low to his right, denying the Guinean striker an 11th Champions League goal in 10 games this season. Gio Reyna came off the bench and almost made an immediate impact against the Portuguese league leaders, hitting the post, but this was a night when Dortmund created little and Sporting even less, with the visitors failing to register a single shot on target. Ultimately, Sporting lacked the ambition to turn around the tie, allowing Niko Kovac’s side to progress on the back of a relatively easy night’s work.
