Borussia Dortmund – Atalanta Bergamo 15-02-2018

Date: 15-02-2018
Game: Borussia Dortmund - Atalanta Bergamo 3-2 (1-0 HT)
Competition: UEFA Europa League, Germany
Stadium: Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund
Attendance: 62.500
Ticket: € 46,90

As most of my friends have already visited Signal Iduna Park, it was finally my time to visit the beautiful ground in Dortmund. Borussia Dortmund was founded in 1909 but compared to other clubs in the city (Dortmunder SC 1895, VfB Dortmund 1897, Alemannia 05 Dortmund and BV 04 Dortmund), the club was rather small. In 1936 the club became the best club in the city and moved from Weisse Wiese to the Rote Erde Stadion, which was built in 1924.

The Rote Erde Stadion was expanded in 1962 with wooden stands, to a capacity of 42.000. In 1974 Borussia Dortmund got a brand new ground, the Westfalenstadion. Since 1974, the ground has already hosted 10 World Cup games (1974 & 2006). The ground can hold 81.360 fans but during international games, the amount is reduced to 65.829, which means the games against Atalanta Bergamo (62.500 fans), was almost sold out.

In the game against Atalanta, Dortmund started the best and dominated the entire first half. At the half hour, Schürrle made it 1-0, which was also the score at the break. The atmosphere was rather calm during the first half but broke loose in the 2nd half. Ten minutes after the break the Italians had already turned around the score; 1-2 after 56 minutes. Ten minutes later Batshuayi made it 2-2 and the Belgian striker scored another goal in the last minutes of the game; 3-2, the entire ground went crazy. The Germans fans wery a bit louder after the break but the Italian visitors were fantastic during the entire game, great support by them! Great ground, good support and 5 goals = beautiful evening out!