The scene before the Liverpool/Borussia Dortmund was surreal as both teams were friendly and showed respect as their fans sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and then stood in a moment of silence for the 96 killed in the Hillsborough Disaster 27 years ago tomorrow. But after the opening whistle blew, while both maintained respect, Liverpool seemed like they were still in the tunnel for pregame festivities while Dortmund was scoring goals and dominating.
Tied 1-1 and down on the away goal, Dortmund had no choice but to score and they did just that. After a misplaced pass by Philippe Coutinho back to Alberto Moreno, Dortmund intercepted the ball and drove toward goal in the 5th minute. After a sweet pass by Gonzalo Castro, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang shot point blank to Simon Mignolet to make the save but Henrik Mkhitaryan put away the rebound to go up 2-1 and force Liverpool to score to tie things up.
The dagger though came in the 9th minute. The silky smooth passing by Dortmund combined by the confusing defensive setup by Liverpool set up Aubameyang to get all alone as Mamadou Sakho and Moreno lost him. Aubameyang got the long pass from Marco Reus and scored to put Dortmund up 3-1 on aggregate and force Liverpool to score three goals to lead. It really is all Dortmund early on at Anfield.
