Strip out the own goal that opened the scoring and the own goal that closed it, and what's left of Dortmund's 3-2 win over Villarreal is one man doing the work of an entire back line. That's the real takeaway from Matchday 1, and it should worry Niko Kovač more than the scoreline comforts him.
Serhou Guirassy scored twice, in his own building, on his 100th appearance for the club, and led Dortmund's players in shots, box touches, and duels won on the night. That's a monster performance, and it came at the perfect moment. Dortmund were already missing Filippo Mané to injury, and Ramy Bensebaini and Nico Schlotterbeck were both unavailable, leaving the defense thin before kickoff even happened. Then, before the half-hour mark, Konstantinos Karetsas went off on a stretcher, adding another name to the injury list.
That context changes what this result actually means. Villarreal came in without a win under new coach Iñigo Pérez in their recent run and had gone scoreless in their last several away Champions League matches. This was, on paper, the kind of night Dortmund should have controlled comfortably. Instead they needed a second-half own goal to break the deadlock, then watched Santiago Mouriño head in a corner to level things before Guirassy dragged them back in front with a close-range finish and then a penalty. Villarreal even nicked one back in stoppage time. A side with almost nothing going for it in recent form pushed a patched-together Dortmund back line to the wire, on the road.
Calling Guirassy's night a landmark is fair. It's one of the best individual performances you'll see in an opening group match, and his place among Dortmund's all-time Champions League scorers is now a real conversation, not hype. But Dortmund fans should watch this one back with some unease rather than pure celebration. A team riding one player's brilliance through a defense missing multiple regulars isn't a sustainable formula across an eight-match league phase. Guirassy bailed Kovač out here. He won't be able to do it every time.
It's one match, and the table position after a single round of fixtures means nothing yet, for either club. But if Dortmund's centre-back situation doesn't sort itself out before the next set of fixtures, this result will look less like a strong start and more like a warning that got answered by one man instead of a team.
