A dead first half, then chaos
Nobody would have paid to watch the opening 45 minutes in Dortmund last night. Konstantinos Karetsas went down with a worrying injury, the cards started coming out late in the half, and the ball spent most of it going sideways. Then the second half arrived and the two sides produced five goals in 40 minutes.
Dortmund broke the deadlock in the 53rd minute without really meaning to. Maximilian Beier swung a cross into the Villarreal area, the defence panicked, and Renato Veiga turned it past his own goalkeeper. Villarreal answered just past the hour. Georges Mikautadze hung up a corner and Santiago Mouriño rose above everyone to head it back across the line.
At 1-1 with half an hour left, Dortmund went to the bench.
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Fabio Silva turns the game
The substitute changed everything. Inside the final ten minutes Fabio Silva burst down the right and drilled a low ball across the six-yard box for Serhou Guirassy to tap in from close range. Five minutes later Mouriño wrapped both arms around the Guinean striker at a corner. Guirassy took the penalty himself and buried it from 12 yards for 3-1.
That should have settled it. Instead Guirassy completed the strangest hat-trick of his career in the third minute of stoppage time. Pepe delivered a free-kick from close to the byline, Gregor Kobel punched it straight back into danger, and Dortmund’s number nine bundled the loose ball into his own net.
Signal Iduna Park spent the last three minutes holding its breath. Veiga found space in the box in the 95th minute and saw his shot deflect wide.
Three points, and a goal difference already dented
The underlying numbers back the result up. Dortmund finished on 2.83 expected goals to Villarreal’s 1.33, won nine corners to seven and completed 461 passes at 90 percent accuracy. The visitors actually beat their own xG and still lost, which sums up a Villarreal season that has yet to get going on any front.
Dortmund open the league phase with three points and a goal difference of plus one rather than plus two. In a 36-team table where separation often comes down to a single goal in January, that own goal may yet cost them a seeding place.
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