After last night’s 3-1 defeat to Sporting CP, Borussia Dortmund have dropped down to the Europa League with no chance of getting through. Sporting, on the other hand, have qualified for the next round of the Champions League with one game to spare.
Erling Haaland was not there for Borussia Dortmund due to injury, and the team could not get the job done without their star striker. Despite starting their Champions League campaign with two wins over Besiktas and Sporting, they lost their next two games against Ajax.
And now, with Sporting extracting their revenge for the defeat earlier in the group stage, Dortmund will be competing in the second tier of Europe. They will, however, be one of the favourites to lift the trophy at the end of the season.
The last time Borussia Dortmund were in the Europa League was in the 2017/18 season. They progressed to the last 16 of the competition that year, and were eliminated by RB Salzburg.
“It’s a horrible defeat. Our aim was to be in all three competitions next year. Now we’ve been knocked out of the Champions League. That’s a massive blow,” said Borussia Dortmund manager Marco Rose.
“It’s simple to say but if we couldn’t be more uncompromising and couldn’t play with more conviction then the defeat was deserved. We gave so little away, but at the same time it’s too easy for opponents to score against us. Tonight our opponents were more uncompromising and clinical than we were.”
