Real Madrid

Highlights and Analysis: Champions League Semifinals, Real Madrid at Borussia Dortmund

Talk of the balance of power in Europe, in geopolitical terms, is usually fraught with history, buzzwords and bad memories.

But talk of the balance of power in soccer on the continent burst front and center on Wednesday after Borussia Dortmund, behind four goals by the Polish international striker Robert Lewandowski, dispatched Real Madrid, 4-1, in the first leg of their semifinal series in the UEFA Champions League.

The victory came 24 hours after the new champions of the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich, signaled that Barcelona’s reign as the world’s best team might be coming to an end with its own emphatic win, 4-0, in the first leg of their series.

Now the semifinals switch next week to Spain. Put simply, the two top teams in the Bundesliga have outscored the two top teams in Spain’s La Liga by an eye-popping 8-1 in 180 minutes of play.

The two series certainly are not yet over (see Barcelona’s rally to oust A.C. Milan earlier in the tournament), but it appears likely that the world is close to seeing the first all-German final in the Champions League, at London’s Wembley Stadium on May 25. And get ready for those cringe-worthy headlines from Fleet Street newspapers tomorrow. How could the Brits resist? Here, we’ll refrain.

Dortmund sprang into the lead on a goal by Lewandowski, 24 but Madrid responded before halftime on a goal by Cristiano Ronaldo. From there it was the Lewandowski show as he struck for three goals in the second half to ice the match.

Dortmund, the two-time defending champions in the Bundesliga until it was dethroned this year by Bayern Munich, came into the match on a wave of bad news — its 20-year-old star Mario Götze will soon move to rival Bayern on a $48 million transfer. Now Lewandowski, who had earlier declined to sign a new pact with Dortmund is also reported to be headed to Bavaria for a big payday.

It could happen, it probably will happen. But for one day, at least, German soccer is sitting astride the soccer world, and deservedly so.

Madrid Poleaxed
Yesterday, we saw the emergence of a team, Bayern Munich, that looks set to dominate European football. Today, it was the turn of a single player to seize the moment and announce his position at the pinnacle of the game. That player was Borussia Dortmund’s Polish striker, Robert Lewandowski.

Sure, he’s not exactly an unknown. He’s been touted as a target for most of the big teams in Europe, from Manchester United to Bayern Munich to the team he tormented today, Real Madrid. He’s always scored goals. Bucketloads of them. Both for his club side and for his national team, which can be classed as average at best.

But Dortmund, for all its progress in recent years, is not quite considered among the behemoths of the European game. That makes success at this level something of a double-edged sword. All the glory and prestige of making the latter stages of the Champions League is wonderful and invigorating and impressive and all that jazz – and the team might yet win the tournament, don’t forget – but it does mean that the vultures circle around your best talents. We’ve already seen that, with Mario Götze heading to Bayern. Now, Lewandowski’s four-star performance could ironically sound the beginning of the end of his Dortmund career. I mean, if you thought you liked the look of him before the game today, imagine how you feel now. The flutter of European club football’s fattest chequebooks being opened was almost as loud as the sound inside Borussia’s stadium.

For Dortmund fans, though, the only tranquilizer is to revel in the moment. All four of Lewandowski’s goals typified the work of a master craftsman. His first, an elusive movement behind Pepe to make space to fling a boot at an inswinging cross opened the scoring. Anticipation, check. Intelligence, check. Movement, check. The second, displayed a velvet first touch to turn in the box, just giving him time to toe-punt into the corner of the net. Positioning? Yup. Instinct? You bet. The third was the best of the lot. Just admire the way every single touch is meaningful, the control, the drag back, the clean-as-a-whistle strike into the top corner. Unstoppable. I’m watching this game in a sports bar in central London surrounded by normally staid execs in suits and even here, that goal had the place on its feet, hollering in appreciation. To finish off, the surefooted penalty – a staple in any top striker’s repertoire – that gave the goalkeeper no chance.

I hadn’t expected a repeat of Bayern’s mauling of Barcelona yesterday. I was wrong. Emphatically wrong. It looks like an all-German final after all.

Dortmund completes a two-day, two-game sweep of the two top teams in Germany over the two top teams in Spain with an emphatic 4-1 victory against Real Madrid.

It looks like the balance of soccer power in Europe has just shifted from Spain to Germany as Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund now prepare for the return matches next week in Spain, holding emphatic leads ahead of the second-leg matches.

The original article  http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/champions-league-semifinals-matchday-2-real-madrid-at-borussia-dortmund/