With a penalty in the 98th minute, BVB was knocked out of the Champions League against Atalanta Bergamo. In the 1:4 defeat in the second leg of the playoffs on Wednesday (February 25, 2026), too many catastrophic defensive errors were Dortmund’s undoing. After the 2-0 win in the first leg, everything spoke for a place in the round of 16.
Gianluca Scamacca gave Bergamo the lead in the fifth minute, and Davide Zappacosta made it 2-0 (45th). Substitute Karim Adeyemi countered Atalanta’s third goal by Mario Pašalić (57′) a quarter of an hour before the end of regular time.
Deep into stoppage time, a penalty that Lazar Samardžić converted made it 4-1. That sealed the bitter end for Dortmund in the Champions League.
The tournament tree of the Champions League 2025/26
Dortmund keeper Kobel: “It was my mistake in the end”
In the general hectic surrounding the penalty kick, there were also wild scenes between the two substitute benches. Nico Schlotterbeck was shown a red card at BVB and Giorgio Scalvini received the same penalty at Atalanta.
Dortmund’s goalkeeper Kobel was very sad afterwards, the penalty decision was preceded by a fatal bad pass by the goalkeeper: “Yes, of course, that was my mistake in the end. Of course I’m really sorry for my boys because I think we made a good comeback and actually played well in the game at the end. Football is hard sometimes.”
BVB sports director Sebastian Kehl then argued: “Nobody here had thought about Bayern or Arsenal before, but you still have to say: Like in the first leg, we didn’t really accept it in the first 25 minutes. And of course we helped diligently with the goals conceded and thus made Bergamo strong. We have to face the criticism and it is justified.”
BVB starts the game at Atalanta with gross negligence
Dortmund’s start to this game was grossly negligent. In the fourth minute, Gregor Kobel had to make a top save for the first time when Nicola Zalewski was able to shoot from a tight angle undisturbed.
Leaving the opponents far too much space continued throughout the first half and was punished early: Waldemar Anton watched Bernasconi cross, Ramy Bensebaini’s completely failed attempt to clear the ball then became the perfect template for Scamacca, who was able to push into the empty goal.
Learned nothing from the Leipzig game
It also became apparent in the following period that BVB made similar mistakes to those in the league game in Leipzig, which ended 2-2 after being 2-0 down. Bergamo also often appeared to attack from the right, but then overloaded the left side and regularly had the advantage there after changing wings.
Atalanta could have added their second goal in the 17th minute when Julian Ryerson was too passive. However, Emre Can was able to block the sharp cross from Berlin-born Lazar Samardžić to Bernasconi. Seven minutes later, Kobel was called upon again, but the Swiss just punched Zalewski’s shot out of the right corner.
Brandt fails because of Carnesecchi – Bensebaini fails again
It took Dortmund almost half an hour to get going offensively. First Serhou Guirassy headed just past the right post, then Julian Brandt was denied by Atalanta keeper Marco Carnesecchi after the first well-combined chance.
Bergamo took over again until the break. Sclavini was allowed to run freely towards Kobel in the 35th minute, but he decided to pass into the middle, which Jobe Bellingham defused. Neither this nor the next big chance from Zalewski (37th), who narrowly missed, led to more attention in Dortmund’s defensive group.
That’s why the second goal conceded before the half-time whistle was only logical: Bellingham and Can gave Zappacosta too much space on the edge of the penalty area, Bensebaini deflected the easily held shot directly in front of Kobel so that the keeper had no chance.
Beier hits Alu, Pasalic scores for Atalanta
Amazing: Even after the change, the total lethargy, lack of ideas in midfield and passivity in defense continued seamlessly. A counterattack by Maximilian Beier almost reversed the action in the 54th minute, but the half-forward ignored Guirassy and Brandt in the center, finished himself and hit the left post.
Shortly afterwards, all of BVB’s problems became clear again at once. Ryerson did not attack Marten de Roon’s cross, in the center Bensebaini and Daniel Svensson allowed Pašalić to head the ball freely in the six-yard box – at this point Dortmund were eliminated.
Bensebaini fouls: VAR, yellow-red and penalty
Then Niko Kovač intervened. He revamped the offensive with Fabio Silva, Carney Chukwuemeka and Adeyemi, which quickly became noticeable. A quarter of an hour before the end, Guirassy shot his own leg in front of Carnesecchi after brilliant preparatory work from Chukwuemeka, and shortly afterwards the ball was in the net: Adeyemi crowned his solo from the right with a perfect shot into the left corner.
When everything was already pointing to extra time, things got very dramatic in the 6th minute of stoppage time. Kobel played a horror pass into the center, which the Italians intercepted. On the subsequent cross, Bensebaini tried to clear the ball with his heel, but in doing so hit Krstović in the head, who immediately bled. According to video evidence, Bensebaini was given a penalty and a yellow-red card – Samardžić used the penalty to deliver the decisive knockout blow.
With the heel – Ramy Bensebaini hits Nikola Krstovic in the head
Dortmund meets Bayern in the Bundesliga
There isn’t much time to recover. The top game in the Bundesliga against Bayern Munich is on Saturday (6.30 p.m., live in the radio report at Sportschau). BVB keeper Kobel was already looking ahead: “Of course it’s short now, we don’t have much time. Now it’s about wiping our mouths, moving on and being there for the team. Everything that’s happened has happened. Now it’s about us gathering quickly as a team, being there at the weekend and putting on a great fight against Bayern at home.”
