Despite being drawn in a tough group,

Borussia Dortmund advance to the round of 16 of the Champions League. All they need to do is beat AC Milan away from home.

In the end, there was no strength left for exuberant celebration. Completely exhausted, but overjoyed and proud, the BVB professionals embraced after the coup at San Siro. With the 3:1 (0:1) victory at AC Milan on Tuesday evening, Borussia Dortmund has advanced to the round of 16 of the Champions League despite a tough group. This means that BVB, which was previously only considered an outsider, will not have to play a final against Paris Saint-Germain on the last matchday of the group stage (December 13). However, they will still be in the running for first place in the group.

“We did really well today. We were in the game from the start, and were able to create a lot of atmosphere with our possession,” said the outstanding Mats Hummels on Amazon Prime Video. ”I think we earned this victory today.”

In front of 75,600 spectators on Tuesday evening, Marco Reus (10th/penalty kick), Jamie Bynoe-Gittens (59th) and Karim Adeyemi (69th) scored the second away win for the Bundesliga fourth after the 1-0 in Newcastle. Samu Chukwueze (37th) equalized for Milan. The victory boosts BVB’s confidence for the Bundesliga top game on Sunday against the as-yet unbeaten league leaders Bayer Leverkusen.

However, anyone hoping for a better start from BVB after the turbulent 4-2 win against Gladbach was initially disappointed. It was not even six minutes into the game when full-back Julian Ryerson made a bad pass while going forward. The counterattack by the hosts ended with Chukwueze, whose shot in the box hit Nico Schlotterbeck’s upper arm – it was a questionable penalty that Gregor Kobel saved strongly against Olivier Giroud.

Now BVB could have fallen back into old patterns, but instead the Kobel save gave the guests a boost. Not even three minutes later, Bynoe-Gittens was fouled in the Milan penalty area – and now there was a penalty for Borussia. Reus did better than Giroud and converted confidently to take an early lead.

Dortmund played with focus from that point on, with a similar maturity to their first-half display against Newcastle United a few weeks ago. Terzic had initially left out Salih Özcan and Julian Brandt, who were on the bench with colds. But the starting XI did well, repeatedly posing a threat to the Italian side, who were moving up the pitch in numbers, through their fast wingers.

Until what happened again, which has happened so often in the past: a lapse in concentration in defense. On the right wing, the nimble Chukwueze got the ball and neither Bynoe-Gittens nor Ramy Bensebaini went into a tackle with the Nigerian, they provided cover at best. The 24-year-old thanked them and shot the equalizer from a tight angle.

Bynoe-Gittens shines again – Adeyemi seals victory

It was one of those typical patterns that BVB repeatedly fall into. Although almost everything was going well, especially the concentration was there for long periods. Milan continued to press high even after the break, but Borussia defended mostly safely and consistently. Nevertheless, there were minor lapses. Fortunately for the visitors, however, so did AC.

Much like Dortmund’s defense, the Italians did not really press the visitors when BVB combined through the box after just under 60 minutes. After a fine assist from Marcel Sabitzer, Bynoe-Gittens finally got the ball and curled it flatly into the left corner. The first good attack after the break gave Dortmund the lead again.

Shortly afterwards, Terzic made a somewhat surprising decision to replace the young scorer. But the coach’s ideas paid off. In place of the Englishman, substitute Adeyemi now excelled, again getting the better of the Milan defense and enabling him to score the 3-1.