Borussia Dortmund have played host to some incredibly talented footballers in recent years.
From Robert Lewandowski to Mats Hummels and Erling Haaland to Marco Reus, the German giants have always been able to field top-class players on their team sheet over the last decade.
As such, no matter how much Dortmund’s form might have undulated between Bundesliga titles and fights for Champions League qualification, you could always rely on them to produce incredible moments.
Pure quality at Borussia Dortmund
Besides, there are only so many games you can go without delivering something to get Signal Iduna Park on its feet when you have world-beating operators taking to the field.
And while that can obviously manifest itself in the form of stunning goals and jaw-dropping passes, it’s arguably in the intelligent moments of play that fans get the most satisfaction.
Well, at least footballing hipsters like ourselves do because there’s nothing better than those little glimpses under the bonnet where top-class players put their footballing IQ on show for all to see.
And one way in which the ballers at Dortmund put their ingenuity and cleverness on display in recent years was when they produced one of the most inventive free-kick routines that we’ve ever seen.
You know, the type of outside-of-the-box thinking for outside-of-the-box set pieces? Ok, we’ll see ourselves out, but the moral of the story is that Dortmund really did outdo themselves in December 2018.
“Erik ten Hag agrees to join Man Utd” (Football Terrace)
Dortmund’s genius free-kick routine
That’s because they carved out a goal for Paco Alcácer during a Bundesliga clash against Werder Bremen with a free-kick routine perfectly orchestrated by Raphaël Guerreiro and Marco Reus.
In a rehearsed moment of tricky that still amuses us to this day, Guerreiro made it look as though he was going to take the free-kick, before peeling away to the right-hand flank at the very last second.
While it was unclear at that point whether Guerreiro was making himself free for a short ball or simply letting his teammate whip in a cross, it looked almost certain that Reus would then be taking the free-kick.
And that was the beauty of the routine because what happened next was a brilliant flash of deception that ended up with Guerreiro delivering the assist, so be sure to check out how they did it down below:
Pure genius. You love to see it.
One of the best free-kick routines ever
For a moment it seemed as though Guerreiro and Reus were going to replicate the infamous Ryan Giggs and David Beckham ‘inception free-kick’ with both players looking as though they were going to take it.
However, in what was clearly a well-worked plan from the Dortmund pair, it was Guerreiro who reassumed responsibilities to provide the type of in-swinging cross that strikers dream about.
Sadly, you can only really pull off this type of unique free-kick gimmick once, but the fact that Dortmund made the most of their attempt with a goal makes it a routine that we just love coming back to.
You can just hear the commentator wanting to utter the immortal phrase: “That was straight off the training ground!”
