However, he has struggled for game time after an initial clutch of games off the bench, notching just 38 top-flight minutes to date this term.

Reinier is currently sidelined after contracting coronavirus last month, and has not played for the club since the Champions League win over Club Brugge on November 4.

I hope he has it too. Zorc expressed understanding for Reinier's struggle to adapt to life in Germany after a protracted spell without minutes on the pitch, adding: "He did not have an easy start with us.

He did not get many opportunities to play dangerous passes, although he was supposed to be supported by Modric as a second play-maker.

If Alonso moved around his basic position, Götze cut him off or handed him over to Lewandowski temporarily. They rather easily prevented Alonso from having too many passing options vailable this way.

There were ten Dortmund players to cover five passing options, sometimes six if one of the fullbacks advanced.

The passing distance to the wing was too great for Alonso to attempt his well-known diagonal passes, because he mainly dropped centrally: Dortmund had width and would have had plenty of time to disrupt play when the ball arrived.

Real was lacking interplay between its midfield parts. Those were destroyed by lacking familiarity with the as well.

Mourinho did not let them play the system in their usual style either. Madrid mostly built up via the right flank, instead of overloading the left wing with Modric then establishing connections to the middle.

At best Real could have combined the flexibility of the with the power of the left flank. They never even got that far. Real rarely penetrated midfield, making the shift a hypothetical situation.

Play along the right side was too slow, enabling Reus and Bender to check Khedira and Ramos, whob did not find a solution, again and again.

Ramos had a bad day in general. He did not establish a connection to Özil and frequently played hectic vertical passes instead of looking for space in midfield diagonally.

It was easy for Dortmund to separate them from each other. Modric and Khedira even played well individually, but collectively nothing seemed to work.

Özil did not find into the game, Modric was on his own too often and consequently Ronaldo did not receive any service. The BVB was able to show its full quality in pressing.

Time and again they created situations that enabled them to isolate the player in possession. They left the innocuous spaces alone and made the dangerous ones extremely tight.

Especially impressive was their ability to cut off all passing options when Real intruded in the middle and how they forced their opponents into being badly outnumbered.

Sometimes Real was even directed towards goal instead of away from it — brave, aggressive and handy. In contrast to Real they also had two flexible players up front, who enabled them to free themselves vertically.

Götze in particular was looking for free space very attentively and found it behind Ramos on the left several times. As if in possession Reus and Götze combined there and played through the left half-space towards the box with pressure.

The simple advantage in running that the Borussia is able to exploit so often showed there as well. If Real was able to break the counterpressing line after dispossessing Dortmund, the home team swiftly retreated into a compact numerical superiority.

Real took much longer, because the players away from the ball moved up less intesively, in both directions. Dortmund did not exploit the occasionally huge space in an optimal fashion though.

As against Malaga, they became fidgety without pressure on the ball — interesting paradox of the Dortmund team. Instead of using the holes on the flank consistently, they sought combinations through the middle, which were too playful.

Borussia did not reward themselves for the great advantages in transition. As the first half progressed Real was more often able to pressure the centre backs.

The Croat, and sometimes Khedira, increasingly moved up and blocked the first passing option of Dortmund. With the lead in the bag Dortmund was too keen on security during this phase and did not make freeing runs consequently enough in build-up any more.

Both together meant they had to play long balls more frequently. Although they still threatened via rebounds, they did not maintain the level of the first minutes.

Real was able to find their stride, but it did not lead to more scoring opportunities. The black-yellow defence was still very stable.

Real equalised after a throw-in curious fashion. Özil returned to his standard position and Modric occupied the right wing.

He played towards the middle of the pitch while Ramos was supposed to advance even more. Varane moved far outside behind him. Mario Götze provided the first assist on the night and was impressive throughout, as he had been since establishing himself in the first team in However, from Dortmund's perspective, he had been too impressive.

Despite his obvious talent, Götze was never really able to find his feet in Bavaria. The man scored the winner in a World Cup final, for goodness sake.

Eight of the Real Madrid players which featured in this first leg humbling started the final the following year, which ended their long wait for the club's fabled tenth European Cup, La Decima.

The same core group of players would then claim a hat-trick of Champions League trophies between and , thriving after the curse had seemingly been lifted.

The workmanlike left-sided midfielder wasn't the most glamorous player but was pivotal in Dortmund's pressing system as tucked in from the flank to narrow the pitch, compressing the space.

Real Madrid rallied in the second leg to win in the Spanish capital, but it wasn't enough to stop Dortmund reaching the final.

Dortmund lost at Wembley, as Arjen Robben rolled the winner past Roman Weidenfeller in the 89th minute to clinch Bayern's historic treble in gut-wrenching fashion for Klopp's side.