In a pursuit to regain his Premier League title, Manuel Pellegrini will see host to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool on Saturday, an affair between Manchester and Merseyside that normally provides us with plenty of talking points. However, instead of focusing on the past fixtures themselves, today, I will throw it back to the last and only time Pellegrini met Klopp; a two-legged Champions League quarterfinal tie between Malaga and Borussia Dortmund.
After topping the group stages and fighting through the last 16, Manuel Pellegrini had managed to guide his Malaga side into the quarterfinals of the most prestigious club tournament in European football – the Champions League. However, taking into account it was the club’s first ever time in the tournament, not many predicted success for the Albicelestes and were surprised they made it as far as the last eight.
This is where he would meet the admirable and well-respected Jurgen Klopp. Dortmund finished top in a ‘group of death’ containing Madrid, Ajax and City themselves before breezing through the last 16 round in Ukraine.
Both sides met in Spain on the 2nd of April and in Germany a week later, on the 9th. A goalless stalemate in the first leg set up for an interesting second, with either side having the chance to grab a place in the semis.
With the home fans by his side, Jurgen Klopp faced the challenge of breaking down Pellegrini’s disciplined and economical counter-tactics, having failed to do so the week before.
Putting to use the prodigious and powerful presence Julio Baptista proposed, Malaga formed attacks from solely counter-play in two or three long and direct passes. The opener was typical of this play-style; Baptista plucked the ball from the sky and offloaded to Isco and then again to Joaquin, who turned and fired the ball through the legs of Nevan Subotic and beyond goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller to make it 1-0.
Now taking into account away goals, Dortmund needed two to go through, and this would have worried most fans, but not the ones wearing black and yellow, who were only briefly hushed and still confident in their players. It was evident that they were correct in remaining so upbeat about going one down when the Dortmund trio of Gotze-Reus-Lewandowski beautifully linked up to send the Pol through on goal, who would make no mistake of rounding the helpless Willy Caballero before sending the ball into the back of the net for 1-1.
Klopp upped the intensity and was becoming more and more animated on the sideline in the second half, but it was Pellegrini’s Malaga who came closest to scoring next; only for Weidenfeller to deny Joaquin’s second goal with two crucial saves. The atmosphere in the Westfalonstadion never let up for the whole match, but yet, as Eliseu prodded in Baptista’s initial finish with seven minutes to spare, it seemed a certainty that their dreams were over.
Dortmund, though, the only team left in the competition remaining unbeaten, were resistant to give up and threw everything they could at goalkeeper Willy Caballero, who like Weidenfeller made some very good saves in the games.
Klopp rallied the troops and Dortmund attacked for a constant 10 minutes. 10 minutes that must have felt like a lifetime to Pellegrini. The attacking force never gave in and their efforts were finally credited and faint hopes of the home faithful were restored when Reus capitalised on a defensive mix-up to level proceedings on the night to 2-2, setting up a grandstand finale.
Defiant until the end, Dortmund kept coming. With seconds to spare, the majority of 65,829 fans packed into Signal Iduna Park were sent into raptures as Santana pounced onto another huge penalty box scramble and made it 3-2 to the home side. A controversial goal in the dying embers of the game whereby off-sides could have well been given put Dortmund through to semi-finals. Obvious Klopp joy was in stark contrast to the emotions of the defeated Pellegrini, who was powerless to prevent the late turn-around.
This weekend welcomes the return of Pellegrini v Klopp, and although the German’s ‘gegenpressing’ came out on top last time out, the Chilean now has a team full of world superstars at his disposal to see off Liverpool and maintain on top of the Premier League table.
