dortmund stride past galatasaray and into last 16 published: tuesday 4 november 2014, 22.55cet borussia dortmund 4-1 galatasaray aş goals from marco reus, sokratis papastathopoulos and ciro immobile not only earned bvb victory but sent them into the last 16.
by andy james from bvb stadion dortmund
• borussia into the knockout stage for the third season running • marco reus continues his excellent form with the opener • sokratis papastathopoulos doubles the advantage with his first uefa champions league goal • hakan balta pulls one back but ciro immobile and an own goal from semih kaya all but end galatasaray's qualification hopes • next games: arsenal v dortmund, anderlecht v galatasaray (26 november)
borussia dortmund maintained their 100 per cent record in uefa champions league group d to qualify for the last 16 with a 4-1 victory against galatasaray şk.
the hosts may have lost their last five matches in the bundesliga but they began with all the characteristic swagger they showed in the early stages of their weekend defeat by fc bayern münchen. pierre-emerick aubameyang and marco reus, both of whose performances were plus points in that eventual 2-1 reverse, were up to their usual tricks with reus finding plenty of space on the left.
yet for all their initial pressure, the game passed without major incident until the 15th minute when wesley sneijder almost netted a spectacular, if surprise, opener with a superb overhead kick that the grateful roman weidenfeller clasped to his chest.
it took another ten minutes for bvb to respond with their first opportunity, a glancing header onto the crossbar by sokratis papastathopoulos from reus's corner. shinji kagawa then went close with the outside of his boot after a strong run and clever back-heel from henrikh mkhitaryan, before neven subotić skewed off target when another reus corner found its way to the back post.
it was a relatively modest haul in terms of chances given their attacking possession, but dortmund did go in ahead at the break thanks to a finely weighted Łukasz piszczek pass which reus slipped neatly through the legs of fernando muslera to open the scoring.
the second half started in much the same vein as the first with dortmund pressing, though sneijder almost levelled things at the other end via more direct means, his pot-shot from distance after a long clearance from muslera bouncing narrowly wide.
typical of their european form this term, however, dortmund showed the kind of clinical touch that has been so lacking for them on the domestic front. papastathopoulos converted their first opportunity of the second period on 56 minutes, hooking in his first ever goal in the competition to double the home lead after galatasaray had failed to clear a corner.
for four minutes it looked as though dortmund's domestic defensive woes might come back to haunt them as hakan balta nodded in from sneijder's corner to reduce the arrears, but substitute ciro immobile completed a clinical counter to restore the two-goal cushion, his third strike in as many group games, before a late own goal from semih kaya capped dortmund's safe passage into the next round, with galatasaray likely left to battle it out with anderlecht for a uefa europa league spot.
