Borussia Dortmund-Atalanta kickoff postponed: the reason why

The kickoff of the match between Borussia Dortmund and Atalanta, valid for the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 playoffs, has been moved to the last moment by fifteen minutes compared to the initial schedule, which had scheduled the two teams to start the contest at 9 p.m. The confirmation came from Uefa around 8:30 p.m.

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The reason is in a delay (justified by the traffic on the way to the stadium) of the arrival of the Borussia team group, which requested from referee Guzubuyuk, also obtaining the consent of Atalanta, the postponement of the kickoff in order to carry out the regular warm-up, a procedure required by regulations.

Atalanta is one of three teams still in the running in the Champions League, all of which are in the playoffs because they finished between ninth and twenty-fourth in the League Phase. The other two are Juventus, which, however, was defeated 5-2 in the match played late in the afternoon by Galatasaray, and Inter Milan, engaged against Bodo/Glimt of Norway.

Atalanta and Borussia Dortmund haven&#8217t played each other since as far back as 2018: in the Europe League round of 16, the Nerazzurri lost 3-2 in the first leg in Germany, only to draw 1-1 in the return and bid farewell to the tournament they would go on to win six years later in the final against another German side, Bayer Leverkusen.