Ryerson ready for Champions League final

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With 2-0 on aggregate, the German club made it to the Champions League final. The team played a very good game, but also had margins on their side. PSG had four finishes in bars and crossbars, and thus there were six during the two semi-final matches.

Julian Ryerson neutralized the superstar Mbappé for a long time, with excellent help from his teammates in a Dortmund team that with disciplined and sacrificial play took the hat off the home team.

In the 47th minute, PSG came up with their biggest chance of the match. Mbappé’s cross from the left went past two teammates and ended up with the youngster Warren Zaïre-Emery, who from short range and from an acute angle shot into the post.

It was PSG’s 11th hit on the post in the Champions League this season, after the team had two in the 1-0 defeat at Dortmund last week. It wouldn’t be the last.

Soon after, Marquinhos gave away a corner kick with an imprecise return, and on the serve from Julian Brandt, Hummels sailed in unpressured at the far post and nodded into the goal.

Emre Can ran into the box late before the corner and Fabian Ruiz sprinted over to pick him up. Lucas Beraldo was left alone with Hummels, and he had no chance in the duel.

Set this? The case continues below the video.

As a right-back, Ryerson got none other than Kylian Mbappé as his direct opponent.

– Tonight, Julian Ryerson has the single most difficult task any Norwegian footballer has had, said Brede Hangeland in TV 2’s broadcast before kick-off in Paris, adding that it is almost impossible to stop Mbappé on his own.

Ally McCoist of TNT Sports also called Mbappé against Ryerson the key duel.

The Norwegian approached the task without visible signs of nerves, but with full attention and great pressure in the duels. Coach Edin Terzic applauded enthusiastically on the sideline when the Norwegian shielded the ball out.

Ryerson not only helped deny the superstar to unfold, he contributed offensively with long throws, a dangerous finish and a dribble raid.

Karim Adeyemi had the first chance of the game after Niklas Füllkrug chested a Ryerson throw to him. Beraldo stuck out his foot and blocked the shot for a corner.

After a quarter of an hour, Ryerson used muscle and technique in a raid. It took three opposing players to take the ball from him in the box.

Then the Norwegian shot into the net wall on a half volley after Füllkrug took down his throw at the dead line and played out to him.

PSG came up with a couple of opportunities a little after the half-hour mark. It could have become really dangerous in the 35th minute, when Fabian Ruiz played out to Mbappé, but Hummels pounced and tipped the ball away before the star striker could shoot.

Instead, Dortmund countered. Adeyeni led the ball from his own half and put Gianluigi Donnarumma to a test, which the PSG goalkeeper barely passed.

In the last minute of the half, Mbappé had moved to the right and escaped Ryerson. He set up Fabian Ruiz, who shot with full force. The ball hit Nico Schlotterbeck and bounced off the goal to the visitors’ relief.

After Dortmund’s leading goal, PSG launched a rush that almost gave new excitement. In the 61st minute, Nuno Mendes hit the post.

Four minutes later, Ousmane Dembélé was brought down by Hummels a few centimeters outside the 16-metre line. It was only a free kick, not a penalty kick.

In the 86th minute, a finish from Mbappé bounced off the crossbar, and two minutes later Vitinha shot into the crossbar as the goal trembled. It was PSG’s 14th strike in the metal in the tournament this season, and the eighth in the four games against Borussia Dortmund. The ball just wouldn’t go in for PSG.

On 1 June, Borussia Dortmund will return to Wembley, where the club lost 0-1 to Bayern Munich in the Champions League final in 2013. The southern German big club can be an opponent this year as well, but then the tournament’s winningest club, Real Madrid, must be defeated on Wednesday.