When the highly strung Kai Havertz was given the second chance to take his crucial penalty after a video assistant referee (VAR) review found Dortmund players had encroached on his first dismal attempt, Chelsea manager Graham Potter was too scared to watch the retake.  

Having lost the first leg of this crunch Champions League tie in a tight 1-0 defeat, all the pressure was on Potter to turn things around. While the English tactician has ample reason to ask for more patience, successive defeats to Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur only led to the sacking calls to reach a deafening crescendo. 

Despite a rare win over Leeds United over the weekend, Potter was still on tenterhooks as history is not on his club's side. Chelsea suffered four straight Champions League last-16 exits from 2015 to 2020. From their last seven knockout ties in which they have lost the first leg away from home, the Blues have progressed only from four.

To further complicate matters, finishing remains an issue for Potter's team. Havertz, Joao Felix and Raheem Sterling all had good chances to level the tie against Dortmund, but didn't, as has been their routine this season.  

Fortunately, lady luck finally smiled on them on Tuesday night. First, Sterling made the breakthrough before the interval, firing past Alexander Meyer after initially botching his shot. Then, the referee penalized Marius Wolf for a handball from Ben Chilwell's cross and Havertz was handed a second go at sealing the victory from the spot kick after his first effort struck the post.  

Potter was nervously gazing at his feet when Havertz shaped his body to shoot. The German striker made no mistake in converting what proved to be the winning goal. 

There were plenty of nerve-racking moments in the final few minutes as Dortmund pushed for a equalizer, but Chelsea held on to earn some breathing space for Potter and stormed into the quarterfinals of the Champions League 2-1 on aggregate. 

"A fantastic atmosphere, a fantastic evening, the players were tremendous, the supporters were tremendous," beamed the relieved Potter, who guided Chelsea to back-to-back wins for the first time since October. "They had to be against a team that was doing so well. I think over the two games we deserved to go through, it was a special night." 

Two victories will not change the fact that Chelsea still sit 10th place in the Premier League, but there is no doubt this morale-boosting demolition of Dortmund has given Potter a new lease of life.

"I'm still here... There was always going to be those kinds of questions and noise. But my job is to prepare the team as best we could and support them," observed Potter. "They’ve been suffering, nobody has enjoyed the run we’ve had, that’s why today was important." 

"We've had a tough period," he added. "We had to respond against Leeds, we played a good game against Dortmund away but lost: nobody wants to hear you played well, had chances and lost. Then we had a poor first half against Southampton. Everyone has to suffer, the players have to stick together and find a way through. I think they've done that in an incredible way." 

In sharp contrast, Dortmund, who had won all ten of their games in all competitions in 2023 prior to this defeat, were furious at the decision to penalize them for encroachment after Havertz's initial miss and their protests continued even after the final whistle.

"The fact they had a retake is a joke," fumed Dortmund's English talent Jude Bellingham. "For every penalty with such a slow run-up there is going to be encroachment by people running into the box by a yard or so, but that's the game. They've made the decision and we've had to live with it." 

The stance was not shared by his manager Edin Terzic. "We were told if the penalty had been scored it would have been retaken as well and I think that is probably correct," he told reporters during the post-match press conference. 

"These are the tiny moments that can lead to who progresses. We still had enough time to come back, and you see what willpower we had in the last minutes, but in the end it wasn't enough." 

As for Chelsea, for all their domestic nightmares, the prospect of a Champions League quarterfinal next month will offer Potter and his players something worthwhile to live and fight for. The win might prove to be the turning point all Blue supporters are waiting for.