Borussia Dortmund’s semi-final dreams are still very much alive thanks to World Cup winner Mats Hummels. The defender scored the equaliser on the emotional reunion of Bundesliga winning, Dortmund hero Jürgen with his former BVB. Thomas Tuchel’s men will face a difficult task when they travel to the North West of England for the second leg of this tie on Thursday.
After Divock Origi put Liverpool ahead in the 36th minute, captain Mats Hummels saved his side from their first competitive-game defeat of the year - Dortmund are now 17 games unbeaten in 2016 (14 wins). Germany international Emre Can played the whole 90 minutes for Liverpool, who recorded their eleventh game unbeaten in this season’s Europa League.
BVB without Gündogan
"He wants to lull our team and our fans. But we’re not playing against our good friend Kloppo. We have the task of knocking Liverpool out of the competition," said BVB-director Hans-Joachim Watzke ahead of the highly-anticipated game in front of 65,848 spectators at a weeks since sold-out Signal Iduna Park.
The eight-times German champions - again without Ilkay Gündogan - struggled at first. In typical Klopp fashion, the Reds pressed early, often causing the hosts to lose the ball cheaply. With a quarter of an hour gone, Dortmund looked to have more structure, and soon became dangerous. Following a lovely bit of build-up play from Julian Weigl and Marcel Schmelzer in the 17th minute, Henrich Mkhitaryan passed up the golden opportunity to put his side into the lead. Mamadou Sakho threw himself in front of the Armenian’s close-range shot to keep the scores level.
Klopp, who - much like his successor at BVB Thomas Tuchel - observes the majority of games from the very edge of his technical area, saw his team create next to no good chances in the opening stages. The only noteworthy incident in front of the Dortmund goal was Dejan Lovren’s header, which BVB’s Europa League goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller was equal to.
Hummels with the equaliser
The home side raised the tempo, increased the pressure, but lacked the precision in front of goal. Of all players, goal machine Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang failed to find a teammate in promising positions on several occasions. Dortmund got their punishment for wastefulness soon enough: a flicked on header from James Milner caught the BVB defence off guard and unorganised, allowing Origi to break through and eventually leave Weidenfeller no chance with the finish.
Dortmund needed a few minutes to overcome the shock of having conceded the first goal. It wasn’t until first-half stoppage time that the next chance fell. Both Aubameyang and Germany international Marco Reus missed the chance to equalise, then on the stroke of half time, an unmarked Origi was denied his second goal by Weidenfeller.
Dortmund came out for the second half with energy and a point to prove. A cross from Mkhitaryan found heading specialist Hummels who nodded home the equaliser. The game really burst into life after this: Weidenfeller was called upon to prevent Dortmund going behind again and made three saves in the space of seconds. The home crowd urged their team forward and the players acted accordingly - Marco Reus met his match in Simon Mignolet from a free kick on the hour mark, but despite purposeful Dortmund attacks for the remainder of the game, they were unable to break down a solid Klopp defence.
35 minutes before kick-off, Jürgen Klopp walked out into his old home of seven years, greeted by the applause of the Dortmund supporters. He waved gingerly and clapped his hands in gratitude. He then stood on the half-way line for a while and chatted to his old friends whilst drinking in the welcoming atmosphere. "I could barely remember what the visitors’ changing room looked like," said Klopp, who last came to BVB as an away-team manager in January 2007, when he was in charge of 1. FSV Mainz 05.