Assessment of BVB's performance in the Battering in Barcelona | OneFootball

Borussia Dortmund travelled to Barcelona for the first leg of a highly anticipated quarter-final. As a benefit for the away side, the game was played in the Olympic Stadium as the larger Camp Nou is currently under construction. BVB came into the game with two wins from their last two matches while employing a successful 3-4-1-2 formation. Today’s match saw Kovač switch to a back four while in-form Beier started on the bench.

Hansi Flick continued his perfect record against Dortmund, as he won his seventh straight match against the Black-and-Yellows. Kovač’s replacement at Bayern Münich clearly had the better gameplan, and his team executed, while Lewandowski continued his impressive goal-scoring tally against his former club. The overall quality of Dortmund was no match for Barcelona on the day, and they paid for it.

Possession is not necessarily something that will win a game, and Dortmund did not have much of it in Barcelona - 40%. This continues the trend of the prior two matches, where BVB had 46% and 44% possession against Freiburg and Mainz, respectively. Dortmund did create chances with their minor possession, as they had 13 shots and a total of 1.45 xG.

With their possession, Dortmund was unable to bring the ball close to the goal compared to Barcelona. According to Fbref, Dortmund's starting XI had only one carry into the penalty area- Barcelona’s players had ten. One of the reasons for the disparity comes from the number of touches each team had in the midfield. Barcelona had 352 touches in the middle third of the field, while BVB had only 196. The part of the field where Dortmund had the most touches was their defensive third.

Maintaining this analytical spirit, here are some statistical assessements from every sector of BVB during their 4-nil defeat to Barça: