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Analysis: BVB can be happy after Turin

Alex ChafferFebruary 25, 2015

Borussia Dortmund return from Italy after losing 2-1 to Juventus in Tuesday's Champions League Round of 16 first leg. DW's Alex Chaffer looks at the reasons why Jürgen Klopp's team can be pleased despite defeat.

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UEFA Champions League Juventus vs. Borussia Dortmund
Image: Marco Luzzani/Getty Images

Borussia Dortmund should return happy from Turin despite suffering a narrow 2-1 defeat against one of the best home teams in Europe. Juventus have now gone 47 games unbeaten on home soil, but against Dortmund on Tuesday night, the hosts suffered a first - Juventus finished the game with less possession than their visitors.

Dortmund will be kicking themselves. On a night when they often looked the better side, defensive mistakes spoiled how they pressed like the BVB of old and controlled the pace of the game in an uncommon 4-1-4-1 formation.

Playing them at their own game

Juventus - who have averaged 61 percent possession at home this season - managed just 46 percent on Tuesday night, as they chased Dortmund for much of the entertaining first half. The Italians made the vast majority of their passes in their own half, with Marco Reus and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang using their pace to force 'the Old Lady' into action.

11 of BVB's 14 tackles in the first period were in the Juventus half, and when in possession, Nuri Sahin – who sat behind Ilkay Gündogan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan as a holding midfielder – was able to push his team forward and dictate the game in the Italians' half. However, as has often been the case this season, Dortmund lacked penetration and a real decisiveness going forward.

Immobile lived up to his name

In Dortmund's three consecutive Bundesliga wins, Aubameyang has lead the line, using his pace to make runs in behind opposition defenses. Against Juventus, Ciro Immobile led the line and lacked the cutting edge that BVB have been used too. In his first start in 2015, the Italian had a single shot inside the Juve box after making his only imposing run in behind the Juventus defense.

UEFA Champions League Juventus vs. Borussia Dortmund
Image: Lars Baron/Bongarts/Getty Images

Despite their control in both the middle of the pitch and the attacking third, Dortmund completed just three passes into the Juve box. Immobile can't be blamed for a lack of intensity, he wasn't given much to work with, but Dortmund didn't go to Italy to take Juventus apart. Klopp and his team went to get a result and although it might not look that way, that is what they got.

"They were good at closing us down and not allowing us to play our kind of game. On the goals we conceded, it was down to errors of positioning, "said Jürgen Klopp after the game.

Costly mistakes

For both of Juventus' goals, it was an unmarked man in the box who tapped home for the simplest of finishes. The first, a shot where Roman Weidenfeller's instincts proved incorrect, fell to Carlos Tevez who, inside the six-yard box, should never have been free.

Just before the break, Paul Pogba played a superb ball across the box to Alvaro Morata, who became the second Juventus striker of the night to find himself unmarked in the six-yard box. On both occasions, Dortmund's defenders were too vigorous in their attempts to close down Juventus in their own half.

"These are problems we have to rectify, but nothing has been lost. There's still everything to play for at Dortmund, “Klopp added afterwards.

Juventus scored against the run of play, something Dortmund should take encouragement from. With three weeks to work on those costly mistakes and a coveted away goal to their name, Dortmund's Champions League season should be far from over.