[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Borussia Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp says he’s visited Wimbledon to watch the tennis but neverbeen to Wembley Stadium. He’ll finally get that chance as Dortmund qualified for the UEFA Champions League final against either Bayern Munich or Barcelona on May 25.
Dortmund hung on forthe 4-3 aggregate win despite losing to Real Madrid, 2-0, on late goals by Karim Benzema and Sergio Ramos.
“I thought if God wills it, we’ll go to the final,” Klopp said after the tense finale to a series Dortmund seemed to have in the bag. “If he doesn’t, we won’t.”
The final will be thefirst for Dortmund since its 1997 title.
“It will be one of the greatest moments in our life,” said Klopp. “But we do not want to go there to be tourists. We want to be the winner of thiscup. We will see what happens but this is just so great.”
Dortmund held on despite the loss of playmaking star Mario Goetze early in the game witha leg injury. It had several good chances. Robert Lewandowski, who scored all four goals for Dortmund in the first leg, hit the crossbar and
Madrid didn’t score until the 83rdminute and added a second goal five minutes later to set up a dramatic finish. A third Madrid goal without a Dortmund reply would have given the nine-time European champions’ a miraculous comebackwin.
After Madrid’s exit, Coach Jose Mourinho signaled he’ll probably leave Spain and move to “where people love me to be.” That would likely beEngland and Chelsea, which he left in September 2007 after leading the Blues to two Premier League titles and three domestic cup wins.
“I know in England I am loved,” he said. “I know Iam loved by some clubs, especially one.”
He hit out at the Spanish media with whom he has clashed.
“I am loved by the fans and the media who treat me in a fair way,” he saidof the treatment he gets in England. “I know in Spain it is different because many people hate me.”
He said he wouldn’t make any final decision until the season ends. Real Madrid playsAtletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey final. It is 11 points behind Barcelona with five games remaining in La Liga, which concludes June 1.
April 30 inMadrid
Real Madrid 2 Borussia Dortmund 0. Goals: Benzema 83, Sergio Ramos 88.
Real Madrid — Lopez;Essien, Varane, Sergio Ramos, Coentrao (Kaka 57); Modric, Xabi Alonso (Khedira 67); Di Maria, Ozil, Cristiano Ronaldo; Higuain (Benzema 57).
Borussia Dortmund– Weidenfeller; Piszczek, Subotic, Hummels, Schmelzer; Gundogan, Bender; Blaszczykowski, Goetze (Grosskreutz 14), Reus; Lewandowski (Kehl 87; Santana 90).
Referee: Howard Webb (England).
Real Madrid-Borussia Dortmund Highlights:
Thank you to Fox for showing this and other UCL games. If they could only do something about those British game announcers! Are they too lazy to learn how to properly pronounce non-English names??? Pathetic!
It was good to see Dortmund go through to the finals & the refereering was exceptional last night thanks to Howard Webb & his crew!
Where was the exceptional part of the refereeing? most likely you do not know anything about being a good referee or you didn’t play real soccer as a player, not spectator, where you got kicked so many times (Lewandowski, Goetze, etc) to understand the fouls that H. Webb allowed!!!. As a player I understand this very well, and as a referee I won’t allow nobody to do it. It was pathetic!!!. He is used to the dirty English style of play, where they are non-stop fouls on players and they do not called them. That isn’t soccer!, it doesn’t required a brain to kick anybody, but that brain is need it to know how to play it. Something similar to the MLS, only fouls, and fouls all the time, and the MLS referees allow this, because of the example they have from the English referees. You need to understand, that English referees aren’t one of the best in the world, they are so so, mediocre, nothing else. As a referees, we are supposed to protect the players, especially the most skill ones, because they are the ones that suffer the most, just for being good at what they do.
At least he sees the whole game. Maybe we just need to change the players kits from short pants to skirts. I never met a ref who actually was much of a footballer.
It sound like John & Rob are sore at Real’s Loss, I’m not Bias like the two of you seem to be, I’m not a fan or supporter of either team, but it’s good to see the underdog win in this case! Webb allowed the game to flow and also has seen Real’s BS tactic’s on the pitch! I also understanding refereeing very well! You can blast me all you want but Dortmund goes on & Real goes home!