New Jersey’s East Rutherford.Goalie Thibaut Courtois palmed away the game’s final goal with his fingertips, and Real Madrid defeated Borussia Dortmund 3-2 in a Club World Cup quarterfinal match on Saturday. Kylian Mbapp’s incredible bicycle kick was one of three goals in second-half stoppage time.
Madrid took a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Fran Garc a and Gonzalo Garc an in the first 20 minutes.
Three minutes into stoppage time, Maximilian Beier of Dortmund scored, and one minute later, Mbapp, who had joined in the 67th, gave Dortmund a two-goal advantage with his bicycle kick.
In the eighth minute of extra time, Serhou Guirassy scored a penalty kick after Dean Huijsen, who was sent out with a red card and will not be able to play in the semifinals, fouled him.
Just before the final whistle, Courtois tipped aside Marcel Sabitzer’s attempt with his entire 6-foot-7 body.
A day after Chelsea’s matchup with Brazilian club Fluminense, Madrid moved to a semifinal matchup against Champions League champion Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.
At the 3 p.m. beginning, on a bright afternoon with a temperature of 86 degrees (30 degrees Celsius), Fran Garc scored in the 20th minute and Gonzalo Garc in the 10th.
New Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso started Gonzalo Garc, a 21-year-old who has only made five appearances in the Spanish league in the last two seasons, over Mbapp, who is still recovering from severe diarrhea. With four goals, Garc an is tied for the tournament lead with Marcos Leonardo of Al Hilal and Angel Di Mar an of Benfica.
Jude Bellingham lost an opportunity to play against his brother Jobe, who was suspended for accumulation of yellow cards, and was replaced by Mbapp.
Madrid overcame a two-goal halftime deficit in a 5-2 triumph of this season’s league phase, and then defeated Dortmund 2-0 in the 2024 Champions League final. In the quarterfinals of this year’s Champions League, Arsenal defeated Los Blancos.
Since losing to Dortmund in the quarterfinals of the 2014 Champions League, Madrid has won five straight meetings and is undefeated in seven.
Gio Reyna, an American midfielder, played just 13 minutes in five games for Dortmund at the end of the tournament and never came off the bench.
MetLife Stadium, the location of the World Cup final the following year, saw 76,611 spectators for this match. Except for a fully vacant suite level on one side, the seats appeared to be full.
Before kickoff, there was a moment of silence in honor of Diogo Jota of Liverpool and his brother, Andr Silva of Penafiel, who passed away in a vehicle accident on Thursday.
Crucial moment
On the last play of the game, Courtois made the game-winning save.
Key Takeaways
A 74-by-114-yard (68-by-105-meter) field was made possible by construction that removed seats from the corners, making it wider than it was for games played during the 2016 and 2024 Copa America events.
___
https://apnews.com/hub/soccer AP soccer
