A brace from Marco Reus was not enough to see Borussia Dortmund through to the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League despite beating Real Madrid 2-0 in their second leg quarterfinal match at Signal Iduna Park on Tuesday night.
Dortmund were made to pay for their poor defending a week ago after going down 3-0 in the first leg which meant they exited the tournament 3-2 on aggregate over the two legs.
Madrid should have put the result beyond doubt in the 16th minute when the referee awarded them a penalty after adjudging Lukasz Piszczek to have handled the ball inside the box.
Angel Di Maria stepped up to take the spot-kick, but saw his effort superbly saved by Roman Weidenfeller.
Three minutes later Dortmund came within inches of opening the scoring when Robert Lewandowski won the ball on the left and squared for Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but he shot just wide from ten-yards out.
Five minutes later, however, and Dortmund did find the back of the net when Reus picked up a poor back header from Pepe and proceeded to round the keeper before slotting home, 1-0.
Dortmund almost found their second goal in the 33rd minute when Mats Hummels met an inch perfect free-kick from Reus, but he headed narrowly over from ten-yards out.
Four minutes later and Reus did double his side’s lead with his second goal of the night.
Another poor defensive error allowed Reus to play Lewandowski through on goal, but his shot from 16-yards bounced off the post and back into the path of Reus who tapped home, 2-0.
Dortmund controlled the rest of the half, but failed to add to the scoreline.
The second half saw Madrid produce a much better defensive performance as they managed to keep the Dortmund attack at bay.
The first decent chance of the second half only came on the hour mark when Gareth Bale burst down the right flank before cutting inside and firing a 20-yard shot inches wide of the post.
Five minutes later a swift Dortmund counter-attack led by Reus saw him play Mkhitaryan behind the Madrid defence, but while he managed to round the keeper he saw his shot strike the post.
Madrid were really hanging on and only a superb save from Iker Casillas in the 71st minute saw them stay in the lead on aggregate as he acrobatically beat away a low 18-yard shot from Kevin Grosskreutz.
Dortmund continued to push forward, but the Madrid defence held firm and progressed into the semifinals 3-2 on aggregate over the two legs.
