This coming Sunday, 9 April, marks the 10th anniversary of a special evening in Borussia Dortmund’s history: the legendary last-minute victory over Málaga in the 2013 Champions League quarter-final. To mark the anniversary, a number of protagonists reflected on the historic evening along with 400 guests at the BORUSSEUM on Thursday.

At the start of the evening, which was presented by the former long-serving BVB press officer Josef Schneck, Jan van Leeuwen from the board of the Fan and Facilitation Department explained how the pre-match fan choreography had come about. The choreo had taken up the whole South Stand and remains – along with its caption “Auf der Suche nach dem verlorenen Henkelpott” (On the hunt for the lost Champions League trophy) – etched into the minds of many Black & Yellow fans today. In addition, there was insight into how carefully such a choreography needs to be planned. If you look closely, you can see that the Champions League trophy in the middle of the South Stand consisted of a number of pieces of black card that had to be held up in the right position. This created an impressive backdrop before the match had even begun.

The fact that this choreography and the atmosphere throughout the match were very special was also confirmed by BVB fan Sina Resch, who was in the South Stand on 9 April 2013. In addition to the match itself, there was another event that will remain forever in her memory. While celebrating the winning goal that made it 3-2, her glasses fell off her nose and broke in the South Stand. After the game, BVB staff came to see her and asked her for her glasses, which are still part of the special exhibition dedicated to this game at the BORUSSEUM today.

Another guest at the event was BVB Net Radio commentator Danny Fritz, who was commentating on the game on the BVB Net Radio alongside stadium announcer Norbert Dickel. His legendary goal celebration sent goosebumps through the crowd during the course of the evening. For Fritz, the decisive moment of the evening was clear: “That was the ‘Come on, lads!’ from Nobby over the stadium loudspeakers after Borussia scored the goal to make it 2-2. He electrified the stadium in the process and helped a little bit to win the game.”

Felipe Santana tunes in from Brazil

The unforgettable nature of the atmosphere was also reiterated by a BVB legend on Thursday evening: Neven Subotic, who played the full 90 minutes that night and even set up the equaliser to make it 2-2. “You could tell it was two central defenders who had come into the penalty area. I somehow passed the ball with my knee and Felipe couldn’t reach it either, but Marco was behind him and was able to slot it in,” said Subotic.

Naturally, the scorer of the decisive goal to make it 3-2 in the fifth minute of injury time could not be left out of the throwback. Felipe Santana tuned in live from Brazil to a great reception. During the lively discussion, Santana revealed how indescribable the goal was for him – but remained modest: “Everyone talks about Felipe Santana, but it was the whole team that turned the game around.” A statement that clearly shows the cohesion that led to qualification for the Champions League final in 2013.

Following the replay of the goal and Nobby Dickel’s announcement of the scorer, the 400 guests in attendance chanted the Brazilian’s name out loud and created yet another goosebumps moment 10 years later.