In the Zone: Chelsea 2-0 Dortmund performance analysis

Borussia Dortmund arrived at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday with a 1-0 first-leg lead and a ten-match winning streak behind them. Chelsea, by contrast, have had mixed fortunes of late yet their performance in beating Dortmund 2-0 to earn a UEFA Champions League quarter-final place was full of encouraging signs.

In this analysis brought to you by FedEx, the UEFA Technical Observer Panel run the rule over a display marked by quick attacking, aggressive defending, fine wing-back play and – last but not least – tactical knowhow.

Goals

1-0: Raheem Sterling (43)

Sterling's first goal since New Year's Day followed driving runs down the left by first Kai Havertz and then Mateo Kovačić. Ben Chilwell then took over and cut the ball back towards Sterling whose movement, checking back to create the space to shoot, was excellent. And though his initial shot was mishit, the ball bounced back his way after an attempted tackle by Nico Schlottenbeck and he smashed it high into the middle of the net.

2-0: Kai Havertz (53)

After Marius Wolf was penalised for a handball offence from Chilwell's driven cross, Havertz found the net with a left-foot strike across his body into the goalkeeper's bottom-left corner. It was a retaken penalty and came after he had placed his first kick wide of the same side of the goal only to gain a second chance because of encroachment. With it, Chelsea had two goals in a game for the first time in 2023.

Player of the Match: Marc Cucurella

The UEFA Technical Observer panel chose the Spaniard for his efforts as the left-sided centre-back in Chelsea's back three, praising his understanding with Kalidou Koulibaly and Ben Chilwell, the men either side of him, and adding: "He made numerous interceptions and tackles, winning aerial duels with excellent timing, and was confident in possession and equally with his passing."

Cucurella's statistics included eight recoveries – second in the Chelsea team behind Enzo Fernández (ten) – and four interceptions, a total bettered only by colleague Reece James across the week's four Champions League fixtures.

Team formations

Chelsea

Graham Potter set up his team in a 1-3-4-3 starting formation in which the UEFA observer highlighted the importance of wing-backs James (24) and Chilwell (21) who operated as defenders and attackers, in turn, depending on which team had possession.

The back three of Wesley Fofana (33), Koulibaly (26) and Cucurella (32) held their shape throughout the match while in front of them skipper Kovačić (8) acted as the holding midfielder and was also involved in carrying the ball forward, with some excellent runs. In attack, the trio of João Félix (11), Havertz (29) and Sterling (17) would rotate at times, and Havertz shone, in particular, providing an out-ball and producing some excellent link play.

Dortmund

Dortmund's formation in possession

In possession, Edin Terzić's men took up a 1-3-5-2 formation. After the fifth-minute exit of Julian Brandt (19) with an injury, substitute Giovanni Reyna was the player to join Sébastien Haller (9) in attack. Behind, Jude Bellingham (22) had a free role, with the licence to take up multiple positions, while wing-backs Wolf (17) and Raphaël Guerreiro (13) played either side and looked to get high up the pitch. Wolf was responsible for the most crosses in the game from open play (four) while Guerreiro made more passes in the final third (24) than any other player in Champions League action this week.

Further back Emre Can (23) was often positioned in the defensive line when Dortmund were in possession. With just one shot on target by the visitors in the first half, the observer saw a team protecting their first-leg lead, rather than aggressively chasing the game, concurring with Bellingham's post-match admission that for all Dortmund's possession (60.8%), Chelsea had "played with a lot more intent than us". (In mitigation, first-leg scorer Karim Adeyemi's absence and Brandt's early departure did not help them.)

Features

A particularly intriguing tactical point on Tuesday night was how Chelsea responded to Dortmund's ability to create overloads centrally before springing forward – a ploy that the Technical Observer Panel highlighted after the first leg.

Dortmund do this very well and there were further examples in this second leg, as seen in the first two clips of the analysis video above. In Clip 1, we see Dortmund players interchange positions as Jamie Bynoe-Gittens drops deep into his own half and Marco Reus comes back centrally and is joined there by Haller while Guerreiro advances up the left. It is a very fluid approach and its purpose is to draw Chelsea players into this area and, crucially, to split the two midfield pivots, Fernández and Kovačić. It works as Dortmund switch play and break down the right in a move that ends with five yellow shirts in the box and Wolf almost scoring.

In Clip 2 we see another attempt by Dortmund to create space centrally with Can dropping back to draw Kovačić forward and leave a gap behind. As the sequence develops they break into the final third – the product of some typically dynamic, fluid football.

Yet the remaining clips in the analysis video showcase the response of a Chelsea side who, according to the match observer, profited from their greater physicality on Tuesday night.

They pressed high out of possession and were alert and aggressive in their defending (indeed both goals followed Dortmund losing possession). Clip 3 shows Cucurella's excellent reading of the game, for instance, as he intercepts a ball intended for Reyna, while Clip 4 shows Chilwell take similar action as he darts inside to close down the same player. The fact that Chilwell is prepared to take his eye off his rival wing-back to jump into that space underlines Chelsea's determination to not be caught out in those corridors.

Chilwell's role, as already mentioned above, was as much about attacking too. Clips 5 and 6 show him and James both getting high and wide in attacking sequences. Both clips feature Chilwell crosses which lead to shots, the second of them yielding Sterling's breakthrough goal.

Another impressive feature of Chelsea's game was the way they broke with speed and this is the focus of the final two clips which show first Havertz break in behind the Dortmund back line and next – in the last sequence – the move that brings the penalty award as Chelsea win the ball and immediately their attacking players spring forward to exploit the space.

It was a clear part of the game plan and, according to the match observer, Chelsea might have exploited it even more with better timing on a night they were caught out a number of times by the offside flag.

Coaches' assessments

Graham Potter, Chelsea coach: "It was important we put some pressure on them, not let them build up, and tried to get the crowd with us. Put in a few tackles, win the ball back high so you can attack them when they're a bit disorganised. That was the thinking; it's not easy to do because they're a top side.

"I’m delighted for [Cucurella]. When you’re having a bad time like we’ve had, you accept the criticism, and you have to deal with it. Marc has dealt with it well. We've tried to shield him a little bit in the sense of picking his moment. Regardless of his situation, with Benoît [Badiashile] not available I thought he would give us that left-footed balance in the back three, and he put in a top performance."

Edin Terzić, Dortmund coach: "It was two very tight games and in the end inches decide who goes to the next round or not. The first ten minutes, you can feel the power not only from Chelsea but also from the stadium but after that we took a bit of control and had more ball possession. It was an open game from both sides. They scored, we didn't.

"[After the penalty] we had one clear-cut chance for Jude Bellingham to get back into the game and after that we took control. There were a couple of moments we had to defend on counterattacks [though] many of them were offside situations. But we couldn't create too many clear-cut chances and on this stage if you have two or three clear opportunities and you don't finish them, it's going to be hard to go to the next round."