Dortmund secure passage into round of 16 despite goalless draw against Sporting CP

Borussia Dortmund sailed into the last 16 of the Champions League after a comfortable 0-0 draw with Sporting CP.

Serhou Guirassy, who is leading the Champions League scoring charts, missed a second-half penalty spot for BVB, but Niko Kovac’s side had little trouble in securing a 3-0 aggregate victory.

Indeed, Sporting had just one shot on target and created chances worth just 0.34 expected goals throughout.

Guirassy’s miss came just before the hour after Karim Adeyemi had been felled by Sporting goalkeeper Rui Silva.

However, Silva atoned with a fine save, one of five stops he made on the night.

Emre Can also had a goal disallowed for Dortmund, who will take on Aston Villa or Lille in the last 16.

Guirassy became the first Dortmund player to fail to score a penalty in the Champions League since Marco Reus against Barcelona in September 2019. 

The Guinean had scored each of his previous five penalties in the competition.

Dortmund, though, hardly had to break a sweat against a Sporting side without attacking talisman Viktor Gyokeres.

Dortmund have now reached the last 16 of the Champions League for a third straight season, having finished as runners-up to Real Madrid last term.

Only Celtic [8] have played more games in the knockout stages of the Champions League without recording a win than Sporting [6 – D2 L4], with the Portuguese side failing to score in five of those games.

As it stands, Three Bundesliga teams will feature in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16, with Dortmund, Bayern, and Bayer Leverkusen all heading to the next round. 

The Bavarians had to leave it late against Celtic to secure their place, with former Bayern player Nicolas Kühn opening the scoring for Celtic just after the hour mark, leveling the tie. 

Two minutes later, Vincent Kompany made a double change – introducing Alphonso Davies – and it was the Canadian who secured Bayern’s place in the last 16 with a goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time to win 3-2 on aggregate.

Bayer Leverkusen meanwhile finished sixth in the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 league phase standings with just two defeats in eight games, securing their automatic place in the last 16.