Borussia Dortmund 1-0 Chelsea: Player ratings as solo Adeyemi strike decides first leg

Nazir Hamzah February 16, 2023

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Borussia Dortmund opened up a 1-0 aggregate lead over Chelsea in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie at Signal Iduna Park on Wednesday night.

Karim Adeyemi’s breakaway goal in the second half decided the game, which saw Chelsea ultimately squander a number of chances, and leaves the Blues with work to do in the second leg.

Dortmund did most of the early attacking, with Chelsea defenders needing to be alert to close down a number of shots in dangerous position. Yet it was the visiting Blues who had the ball in the net first from a wide free-kick, only to see it ruled out and a yellow card brandished after the officials spotted Thiago Silva flick it goalward with an outstretched hand.

In front of a raucous home crowd, Dortmund began to threaten more consistently midway through the first half as the front three of Adeyemi, Julian Brandt and Sebastien Haller began to work together well. Haller sent a big warning to Chelsea when he fired into the side netting.

Chelsea had a glorious chance of their own not long after when Joao Felix blazed over from a good position – Emre Can throwing himself in front of it probably did enough to put the Portuguese off. A similar opportunity for Adeyemi also failed to hit the target at the other end.

Before the interval, Felix was guilty of missing another great chance, taking on Marius Wolf and lifting the ball over Gregor Kobel, only to see the ball come back off the bar.

Dortmund goalkeeper Kobel had his first save of the night to make 10 minutes into the second half, pushing a Reece James free-kick to safety with probably a more spectacular parry than it needed. James again tested Kobel’s reflexes in open play not long after. Kepa also did well at the other end to hold onto a low shot from Brandt in between those Chelsea chances.

Kobel’s pair of saves proved even more vital when Adeyemi then gave Dortmund the lead. Seconds after a Chelsea corner, Pace was king as the young forward scampered passed Enzo Fernandez, who looked like he had no idea how to stop his opponent, rounded Kepa and slid the ball home.

A combination of Kobel and Emre Can denied Chelsea an equaliser as the game neared the final stages. The ball fell to Kalidou Koulibaly of all people in the penalty area – he went for power, but Kobel did just enough to take the sting off it, with Can hooking away as it dribbled towards the line.

Tempers threatened to boil over near the end with some pushing and shoving in front of the benches, while there was still time for one more Kobel save to deny Fernandes what would have been a spectacular equaliser in stoppage time.

Borussia Dortmund player ratings (4-2-3-1)

GK: Gregor Kobel – 9/10 – Made a handful of important saves, particularly to keep the scores level just before Adeyemi’s breakthrough and later to preserve the lead when Fernandez thought he’d put a stoppage time equaliser in the top corner.

RB: Marius Wolf – 7/10 – Put in a physical shift and his presence in key moments was just enough to put Chelsea players off more than once.

CB: Niklas Sule – 7/10 – Barely misplaced a pass and was on the end of most balls that came into the penalty area.

CB: Nico Schlotterbeck – 7/10 – Impressively kept Chelsea at bay.

LB: Raphael Guerreiro – 7/10 – Gets credit for the assist and held his own defensively.

CM: Emre Can – 9/10 – Made a heroic goal-line clearance to preserve the lead, capping off an already epic defensive performance.

CM: Saih Ozcan – 6/10 – Patrolled the midfield.

RM: Julian Brandt – 8/10 – Repeatedly dropped deep to then run with the ball that dragged Chelsea midfielders out of position. Created plenty and was always asking questions of the defence.

AM: Jude Bellingham (c) – 7/10 – Involved in plenty of what Dortmund did well.

LM: Karim Adeyemi – 8/10 – A lively threat from the early stages and later took his goal so well in a really clinical manner.

ST: Sebastien Haller – 6/10 – Made his Champions League debut for Dortmund following his cancer treatment. Not an easy night but went close to scoring in the first half.

Substitutes

SUB: Anthony Modeste (68′ for Haller) – /10

SUB: Julian Ryerson (73′ for Wolf) – /10

SUB: Jamie Bynoe-Gittens (78′ for Adeyemi) – /10

Manager

Edin Terzic – 7/10 – The game plan worked well and his players gave it everything.

Chelsea player ratings (4-2-3-1)

GK: Kepa Arrizabalaga – 5/10 – Not massively busy in the end. Stood little chance for the goal once Adeyemi was running at him with pace.

RB: Reece James – 6/10 – Walked a tightrope from the first few minutes because of an early yellow card. His free-kicks were a source of danger.

CB: Thiago Silva (c) – 6/10 – Booked for putting the ball in the net with his hand. Dominated most situaitons in his penalty area.

CB: Kalidou Koulibaly – 6/10 – Turned away a few dangerous looking crosses in the first half. Almost emerged as a hero for Chelsea but was denied an equaliser by a goal-line clearance.

LB: Ben Chilwell – 5/10 – Got forward when he could but struggled against an impressive Brandt.

CM: Ruben Loftus-Cheek – 6/10 – Ended up being quite a safe performance.

CM: Enzo Fernandez – 5/10 – Okay passing but a lack of pace was exposed in the first half by Brandt and then critically by Adeyemi in the second.

RM: Hakim Ziyech – 6/10 – Fairly quiet in the first half but improved after the break.

AM: Joao Felix – 5/10 – Looked lively to begin with but squandered two glorious first half chances. Later faded badly from the game.

LM: Mykhailo Mudryk – 3/10 – Looked more like a fan who had won a competition to play a game with Chelsea than someone who could eventually cost £90m.

ST: Kai Havertz – 5/10 – His shooting radar was off but involved in creating chances for others.

Substitutes

SUB: Marc Cucurella (71′ for Chilwell) – 6/10

SUB: Mason Mount (71′ for Mudryk) – 6/10

Manager

Graham Potter – 6/10 – Forced into a couple of changes from the weekend because there was no room in the Champions League squad for Benoit Badiashile and Noni Madueke. Things haven’t clicked for this new look team yet and the only thing that will help is time.