Borussia Dortmund advanced to the Champions League round of 16 with a goalless draw against Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday, sealing a 3-0 aggregate triumph.
Serhou Guirassy missed a penalty in the second half, but it didn’t matter because last season’s finalists were barely disturbed by Sporting and cruised to victory.
Dortmund’s reward is a last-16 match against Aston Villa or Lille.
“It was a controlled performance,” Dortmund coach Niko Kovac told reporters.
“In the second half we had the missed penalty and the shot against the post from Giovanni Reyna. We should have won, but we’re through at the end of the day.
“We’re working on taking our goalscoring opportunities. I believe in the lads.”
It was always a tough ask for this young Sporting side ravaged by injury to overturn the damage done in last week’s first leg, when Guirassy, Pascal Gross and Karim Adeyemi all scored.
Dortmund dominated much of the return leg on a freezing night in Germany, with Marcel Sabitzer coming closest to breaking the deadlock with a rasping drive from distance that Sporting goalkeeper Rui Silva did well to palm around his post.
After the break, Dortmund got the chance to put the tie to bed from the spot when Silva was adjudged to have brought down Adeyemi in the box after Nico Schlotterbeck’s long pass split the visitors’ defence.
But Guirassy’s well-hit penalty was saved superbly by the Portuguese goalkeeper low to his right, denying the Guinean striker an 11th Champions League goal in 10 games this season.
Reyna came off the bench and almost made an immediate impact against the Portuguese league leaders, hitting the post, but this was a night when Dortmund created little and Sporting even less, with the visitors failing to register a single shot on target.
Ultimately, Sporting lacked the ambition to turn around the tie, allowing Kovac’s side to progress on the back of a relatively easy night’s work.
