Marco Reus called his return to the Champions League final — 11 years after first playing in it with Borussia Dortmund for the first time — “indescribable” as his team beat Paris Saint-Germain 2-0 on aggregate to cap an improbable run.
Mats Hummels scored the game’s only goal in a 1-0 win in Paris on Tuesday and the Bundesliga rode their luck — with PSG hitting the post four times with 30 shots on the night — to set up a match against Real Madrid or Bayern Munich on June 1 in London.
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In 2013, Reus started in a 2-1 loss to Bayern in the final on a Dortmund team that featured Robert Lewandowski and Ilkay Gündogan and was managed by Jurgen Klopp. Tuesday night’s hero Hummels was also a teammate of Reus’ in 2013.
“Indescribable. After more than 10 years, I am in the final with Borussia again,” said Reus, who is leaving the team at the end of the season. “How we won the game, no one will ask tomorrow. Shots against the post won’t matter tomorrow. What counts is that Borussia Dortmund is in the final again.”
Reus came into the game shortly after Hummels had powered in his headed goal from a Florian Wirtz cross and helped Dortmund see out a second-consecutive 1-0 win against the Ligue 1 champions.
“Today it was clear that we needed to suffer and that we needed some luck, but what the lads did was crazy, crazy,” Reus added.
Dortmund have played a roller-coaster Bundesliga season and are currently in fifth place with two games left, but manager Edin Terzic said their place in the league had no bearing on what would happen in the final.
“That plays no role,” Terzic said. “In 2013, when Dortmund were in the Champions League final they were 25 points behind in the league and in 1997 when they won it they were also not doing well.
“The season had highs and lows, but our season is still not finished.”
Dortmund now await the winner of the match between Bayern and Madrid on Wednesday to determine who they will play at Wembley Stadium.
“Before the first [Round of 16] game against [PSV] Eindhoven, we talked for the first time about how short the journey to London could be,” Terzic said. “Back then, many were still puzzled. We’ve grown with every game and eventually realised that we could be the team that surprises everyone in the end.
“Now I’m very happy to be in the final with my team.”
Information from Reuters was used in this story.