'Nobody expected this'

Borussia Dortmund legend Marco Reus reckons beating Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 to enter UEFA Champions League final is a pleasant surprise; Hummels nets all-important match-winner

Borussia Dortmund veteran Marco Reus said “nobody expected us to make it” as his side booked a return to Wembley’s Champions League final by beating Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday. Dortmund will return to the site of the 2013 Champions League final, when the then Jurgen Klopp-coached side lost 2-1 to German rivals Bayern Munich. 

Dortmund won this year’s semi-final second leg 1-0 at the Parc des Princes thanks to a header from Mats Hummels, who also played for Dortmund in the 2013 final. 

They go through 2-0 on aggregate, having won the first leg by the same scoreline. “Tomorrow nobody will ask how we did it. They will just see the name Borussia Dortmund in the final at Wembley,” Reus said to Amazon Prime. 

Crazy victory

“Today it was clear that we needed to suffer and that we needed some luck, but what the lads did was crazy, crazy.” The 34-year-old, who announced on Friday he will leave his boyhood club at the end of the season, said the feeling of returning to European football’s showpiece event was “indescribable.” 

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Marco Reus 

“Now we better win it, otherwise that would really suck,” said Reus. Reus re-joined Dortmund in 2012 having come through the club’s junior system before moving first to Rot-Weiss Ahlen aged 15 then to Borussia Moenchengladbach. “What a week for me personally. To finish in the Champions League final, where it all started for me in 2013—more than 10 years later!” 

A re-match with Bayern remains on the cards, with Thomas Tuchel’s side playing at Real Madrid in the other semi-final on Wednesday. Bayern and Real played out a 2-2 draw in the first leg. 

Dortmund rode their luck in both semi-finals, with PSG hitting the woodwork six times—including four times on Tuesday.  Despite needing assistance from the goal frame, Dortmund’s central defensive pairing of Hummels and Nico Schlotterbeck kept PSG’s ace attacker Kylian Mbappe under check. 

Third final for BVB

The final in Wembley on June 1 will be Dortmund’s third Champions League final, having won the competition in 1997.

Mbappe denied dream PSG farewell

Kylian Mbappe will not get his dream farewell from Paris Saint-Germain after their shock Champions League exit at the hands of Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday deprived him of playing his last game for the club in the final at Wembley next month. The 2018 World Cup winner will leave PSG after seven years when his contract expires at the end of this season, with Real Madrid his likely next destination.  “I don’t really like to talk about bad luck. But this is life, we need to pick ourselves up,” said Mbappe after the match.

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