Soccer Football - Champions League - Knockout Phase Playoff - First Leg - Sporting CP v Borussia Dortmund - Estadio Jose Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal - February 11, 2025 Borussia Dortmund's Serhou Guirassy scores their first goal past Sporting CP's Rui Silva before it is disallowed REUTERS/Pedro Nunes
LISBON (Reuters) -Borussia Dortmund forward Serhou Guirassy scored one and set up another in a 3-0 victory at Sporting in their Champions League playoff first leg on Tuesday to put last year's finalists in the driving seat for a spot in the last 16.
Champions League top scorer Guirassy headed in his 10th goal of the competition on the hour mark before providing Pascal Gross with a perfect assist to double the lead in the 68th.
Karim Adeyemi added another in the 82nd minute, completing a five-touch textbook counter-attack, to mark a winning European debut on the Dortmund bench for Niko Kovac ahead of next week's return leg.
The Croat had taken over last week but saw his team lose at home to VfB Stuttgart in his league debut on Saturday, with Dortmund struggling in the Bundesliga and at risk of missing out on next season's Champions League.
"You cannot come here and dominate against Sporting but in the first half we were far too slow," Kovac said. "After the break we increased the speed and scored great goals. I was happy to see that physical commitment. To play here like that is not easy."
"Sporting are a good team and we saw it in the first half. We did not have the initiative. We had to play faster, circulate it with fewer touches. We took the right decisions, not only when we scored. We could have scored maybe one more goal."
"On Saturday we go to VfL Bochum and we will face a tough task there. We now have to keep going," said the coach whose team are in 11th place in the Bundesliga.
Sporting were more aggressive at the start and hit the woodwork with Maxi Araujo's powerful drive bouncing off the crossbar.
Another shot from Conrad Harder in the 35th was palmed wide by Dortmund keeper Gregor Kobel with the visitors failing to register a single shot on target in the first half.
That came in the 55th minute when Adeyemi's low drive was blocked by Rui Silva. Guinea international Guirassy, however, gave the keeper no chance, wrongfooting him with a looping header from a Julian Brandt cross.
The Germans kept up the pressure and eight minutes later doubled their lead, as Guirassy whipped in a cross and Gross volleyed in from close range.
Well before Adeyemi struck in the 82nd, Sporting had seemingly thrown in the towel, unable to break past the Dortmund defence, even after bringing on the Portuguese league's top striker Viktor Gyokeres.
"After the goal, our spirits dropped and we felt it physically," said Sporting coach Rui Borges. "We weren't very proactive and we lost our collective balance. The result ends up being unfair. We let the game go the way Borussia like it."
(Reporting by Karolos GrohmannEditing by Toby Davis)
