The victory at the Metropolitano Stadium extends Diego Simeone’s remarkable unbeaten home knockout record in this competition to 17 games.
Having negotiated a dramatic penalty shootout success against three-time European champions Inter Milan in the previous round, Simeone’s men began brightly, and were rewarded with a fifth-minute opener.
Yet, it was largely down to a true defensive horror show from Dortmund, with Ian Maatsen’s attempted pass being intercepted by Rodrigo De Paul, and the Argentine dispatched a clinical finish past Gregor Kobel with the outside of his right foot. It was effectively all one-way traffic from there, as further chances fell to Antoine Griezmann and Alvaro Morata.
Such was the hosts’ dominance, Edin Terzić’s side took more than 30 minutes to create their first attempt, when Felix Nmecha headed over from Jadon Sancho’s corner. And the Colchoneros eventually doubled their advantage through Samuel Lino, who coolly slotted home past Kobel from Griezmann’s sublime lofted assist into his path.
Despite the brilliance of Griezmann and Lino, Dortmund were again guilty of amateurish defending, as an embarrassing miscommunication involving Mats Hummels and Nico Schlotterbeck played its part.
Der BVB showed signs of a revival after the interval though, with half-time substitute Julian Brandt seeing his attempt deflected wide from Niclas Füllkrug’s unorthodox lay-off. Terzić then elected to freshen up the Dortmund forward line, with the introduction of Haller for Füllkrug, as the hosts seemed content to preserve their two-goal lead.
Kobel was far less busy after the break as a result of the hosts’ efforts to take a two-goal advantage to Dortmund, but he was called into action, superbly denying Lino a second goal from Griezmann’s in-swinging set-piece.
However, Haller did make the impact which Terzić would have hoped for after latching onto Brandt’s pass and rifling a brilliant finish past Jan Oblak to halve the deficit.
Brandt’s header then clipped the woodwork in the final seconds, but Atlético held onto a slender lead to take into next Tuesday’s second leg at the Westfalenstadion.
As for Dortmund, this was a case of getting out of jail following their first-half defensive disaster-class, and will count on the famous ‘Yellow Wall’ to help them turn this one around.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Antoine Griezmann (Atlético Madrid)
