GERMANY: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Borussia Dortmund score a controversial winning goal against Malaga to progress to the semi-final of the Champions League

Record ID: 740477

  • Title: GERMANY: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Borussia Dortmund score a controversial winning goal against Malaga to progress to the semi-final of the Champions League
  • Date: 10th April 2013
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (German) BORUSSIA DORTMUND COACH, JUERGEN KLOPP, SAYING: "I was told, and I haven't seen it yet that the first goal against us was slightly offside and the second one was also offside. I don't really know, but we would still be two ahead if I have calculated it properly and it would have led to a different development on the game. I think, and again I completely understand it because I have also lost big games and afterwards you often feel you have been unfairly treated, I can really understand this, but looking at the two games, we deserved to qualify. One also has to say this." KLOPP LEAVING AT END OF NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 25th April 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: General,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA9UO6BARKOZVAIX68FC7FI59YI
  • Story Text: Borussia Dortmund's dramatic 3-2 Champions League quarter-final win over Malaga on Tuesday (April 9) left the Germans dizzy with success while their opponents were fuming over the late winner.
    Former European champions Dortmund scored twice in stoppage time, including a controversial winning goal from defender Felipe Santana, that saw them complete a sensational comeback and advance to the last four for the first time in 15 years.
    Several Dortmund players in front of Malaga goalkeeper Willy Caballero looked offside when the ball was crossed for the winning goal and Santana also appeared offside when he scored.
    The Germans, who last reached the semi-finals in 1998, a year after winning the trophy, looked on their way out when Eliseu scored to put Malaga 2-1 up in the 82nd minute.
    Dortmund, needing two goals to advance after their goalless draw in Spain last week, pulled one back through Marco Reus a minute into stoppage time to rekindle their hopes.
    Santana then scrambled the ball over the line from what looked an offside position to complete a dramatic night and protect Dortmund's unbeaten Champions League run this season.
    "I think that football is an act that involves many factors and I think we played a very good game but unfortunately fate did not want us to get through in the end," said Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini.
    "There was, in effect, no referee really on the pitch in the last seven or eight minutes of the match and in such a situation of course the home team has the advantage.... I don't know if one should call it a pure atrocity. Perhaps it would have ended differently if we had had a different personality, referee on the day but now it's history and I don't know if we can call it atrocious. It is a fact that the defeat hurts but against a team which was praised so much, and quite rightly so, we can at the end of the day try to make the team operate with long balls, and force them to use their elbows had to be used a little bit," he added.
    Pellegrini also went on to congratulate the Germans in making it into the semi-final.
    Malaga had a difficult run-up to the match, losing in La Liga on Saturday (April 6) and travelling to Germany without Pellegrini, who arrived early on Tuesday after returning to his native Chile at the weekend following the death of his father.
    For Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp, the emotions were totally different.
    "I understand that tonight, we saw the two different faces of football. On the one hand the one of the absolutely disappointed, and understandably disappointed losers, and on the other hand the unbelievably beaming and extremely happy victors. That's what happens in this sport," he said.
    "I was told, and I haven't seen it yet that the first goal against us was slightly offside and the second one was also offside. I don't really know, but we would still be two ahead if I have calculated it properly," Klopp went on to say, adding: "I completely understand it because I have also lost big games and afterwards you often feel you have been unfairly treated, i can really understand this, but looking at the two games, we deserved to qualify."
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