Not long until the Champions League group stage draw – tomorrow night we’ll find out who will play who in Europe’s premier club competition, but before that we need to find out who will actually make up the rest of the pots for the draw. Five results were in the offing tonight, and we’ll be focusing on the one between Lucien Favre’s up-and-coming Mönchengladbach and Dynamo Kiev, who lead 3-1 on aggregate before the game.

Dynamo Kiev fans will be happier with the result in the first game: a 3-1 away win is usually enough to guide sides through a two legged affair. But fans of die Fohlen can take heart in the fact that no German team has ever been knocked out of a two-legged match following a 3-1 defeat in the first leg. Stuttgart were the last to pull back a 3-1 lead, in the 1998/1999 Uefa Cup against Feyenoord, while perhaps the best result came in the 1993/1994 Uefa Cup, when Karlsruhe SC beat Valencia 7-0 in the return leg.

Still, the German side would have to put three goals past a Ukrainian outfit who have a lot of Champions League experience and were the better side by far in the first leg. Borussia started well, Juan Arango (who scored a wonderful free kick at the weekend) breaking into the box but failing to beat Maxym Koval.

Kiev’s Taye Taiwo got in behind Gladbach’s defence not long later, but was muscled out of a great opportunity by Filip Daems and Roel Brouwers. Later in the first half, Taiwo would be foiled again, this time by Marc-Andre ter Stegen after beating the offside trap. His first touch was slightly heavy, giving the young German goalkeeper chance to beat Taiwo to the ball. While Kiev looked dangerous with every attack, it can’t be denied that Borussia had the vast majority of possession. It’s just that they failed to do anything notable with it.

That’s not saying Gladbach had few opportunities, because they had some – Patrick Hermann fired a testing shot at Koval’s goal midway through the first half, while Arango had a penalty appeal turned down – but in spite of all of the ball, Mönchengladbach were not controlling the game, and the first half ended all square at 0-0. Three goals in 45 minutes was needed for a German footballing version of the Great Escape.

The second half began as the first half ended: comfortable viewing for Kiev fans and frustrating viewing for Gladbach fans. Gladbach still continued to play the best football, but Dynamo knew that all they needed to do was sit back and stop the German side from scoring. They failed in this venture, however: with 20 minutes or so left, Juan Arango provided a peach of a ball for Luuk De Jong. The Dutch striker, who signed from FC Twente in the summer, missed the ball, but luckily for die Fohlen defender Khacheridi also misjudged the flight of the ball, and the ball ended up in the back of the net. 1-0, and with 20 minutes left Gladbach needed two more to progress.

It still looked a long shot, but would the “Wunder von Kiew” come to pass? 12 minutes from time, Juan Arango gave his supporters more reason to believe. Alexander Ring floated a corner into the box, leaving the Venezuelan winger with a chance to head home. Arango did so with absolute aplomb, and Kiev were left with the slimmest of advantages: 3-3 on aggregate, but they’d go through on away goals.

Surely at this point it was fairytale territory. Surely. Would there be a story about a comeback in Kiev to accompany other Champions League comebacks? Well, Kiev had other ideas; to their credit they carried on trying to attack on the break, and went for the heartbreaker. At the end of a game’s worth of half-chances, Ideye Brown was the player to score a wonderfully finished goal – the third goal, but the wrong net for Favre and his team. Perhaps deserved for Kiev, as Mönchengladbach hadn’t been massively superior to Kiev throughout the game.

Kiev go through despite losing the second leg, after playing well enough to keep Mönchengladbach at bay. Credit must go to them, as they didn’t need to open themselves up and didn’t. Gladbach should, however, learn a lot from this experience, and could be a force to be reckoned with in the Europa League this season.