Some matches are too exciting to believe for an average soccer fan; perhaps many of the nail biting matches go over the top as far their excitement and suspense till the last moments are concerned. Champions League semifinal between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund was one such match where Borussia Dortmund defeating Madrid with 4-3 on aggregate. The match was perhaps the most thrilling of the league till now, coz Madrid was the favorite to win as they were leading by 2-0 at once, and when it reaches to a close finish everyone including Dortmund chairman could not afford to see the last few moments of it. Unexpectedly, Chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke actually locked himself in a Bernabeu toilet to avoid the final moments of the most exciting game of the league. He described about his strange behavior by issuing a statement on club website that reads as, “It seems like we only can do it with drama For the first time in my life I had to give up due to heart problems. I went to the toilet for the last minutes, locked myself in, covered my ears and looked at my watch. I had all kinds of thoughts going through my head.”
Actually, he was not the only one who could not bear the excitement level during those last few moments when goals from Karim Benzema and Sergio Ramos brought their team to a memorable fight back. Director of sport Michael Zorc was another one who struggled to cope with the nail biting finish including five minutes of injury time, he described about this in his statement as well that reads as, “We have earned ourselves a huge reputation in Europe. In the last minutes I was close to a heart attack. But when there is a positive outcome, it’s all good. It was great. In the second half we played a really good game. In the space of 10 minutes we had four golden chances. When you don’t take them then you are often punished. That’s why it was really tight again. That was not in the plan. But, in retrospect, it was only a slight deviation from the plan.”
Dortmund showcased a perfect example of how a team should fight back and the main contributors for its win were Defender Neven Subotic, central defender Mats Hummels, and goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller. Subotic said after the match that “After we went 2-0 down I thought, ‘When you clear the ball, then hoof it as far away as you can’.
“When I saw it was five minutes added time I thought I would die.
“But we played down well in the last three or four minutes. The most dangerous phase was the four minutes before stoppage time.”
