Sevilla were on a run when they welcomed Borussia Dortmund to the Sanchez-Pizjuan for the first leg of their last 16 Champions League tie, but their spirits were dented slightly principally due to the hurricane-like Erling Haaland, the game ending 3-2 to the men from the Black Forest.
Sevilla went into the game fourth in La Liga, on a run of nine straight victories and seven consecutive clean sheets, and they started well, opening the scoring inside the opening ten minutes. Suso saw his effort on goal deflected, spinning past the opposition goalkeeper and into the back of the net to give the Andalusians the ideal start.
Dortmund weren’t long striking back, however, equalising just shy of the 20th minute through a well-taken strike from Mahmoud Dahoud before taking the lead in the 26th minute through Haaland. The Norwegian marksman doubled his tally shortly before half-time after seizing on an Ivan Rakitic mistake, only for Sevilla to pull one back inside the final ten through Luuk de Jong.
“We’re a little disappointed,” Suso said post-match in comments carried by Diario de Sevilla. “We conceded the goals because we weren’t focused and attentive after losing the ball. They have good players in attack that could break quickly, and they knew how to take advantage when we lost the ball. But if there’s a team that can surprise, it’s us. We’ll see where we failed and will improve on it for the next game.”