DUsel in Frankfurt, luck in Copenhagen: four days after the top game in the Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund faltered again. Coach Edin Terzic’s team also revealed many weaknesses in the 1-1 (1-1) in Copenhagen at the end of the Champions League group stage.
Emre Can didn’t want to use the fact that BVB had already qualified for the knockout stages before kick-off and therefore rested numerous stars as an excuse. “We jogged around, we walked around,” complained the national player and was harsh on everyone involved: “We’re playing the Champions League here. It’s about a lot of money. It’s about everyone wanting to show themselves, everyone wanting to prove themselves. I think we didn’t do that 100 percent today.”
“A lot of ball losses”
Even the prize money of 2.8 million euros didn’t help to turn the tide. The bottom of the table from the Danish capital missed the best scoring chances in a row, especially in the first half. That’s why BVB was still well served after the interim lead by Thorgan Hazard (23rd) with Hakon Haraldsson’s equalizer (41st).
Unlike midfielder Can, football teacher Terzic asked for leniency for the Dortmund professionals, who were exhausted after a long time chasing appointments: “It was the fifth English week. You have to forgive one or the other sometimes.” Nevertheless, disappointment also rang through the football teacher: “We wanted to show that we could give it our all in this game – even if it wasn’t a matter of life or death. But we lost a lot of turnovers and had to catch a lot of counterattacks.”
Without a significant increase, further adversity threatens until the start of the World Cup break. Fourth in the table wants to make up ground in the remaining three games at home against VfL Bochum and away against VfL Wolfsburg and Borussia Mönchengladbach. “We hope that the last three games are so successful that we all go into the winter break with a big grin,” commented defender Nico Schlotterbeck.
To lighten the rather gloomy mood, Terzic recalled the embarrassing defeat of BVB in the preliminary round last season, when Dortmund only finished third in a supposedly easy group and a little later failed in the Europa League at Glasgow Rangers: “It was a very difficult one satisfactory group stage. We were already qualified for the knockout stage one matchday before the end. That was not always the case in the past.”
After all, BVB is not threatened by another long-term absence of goalkeeper Gregor Kobel. Terzic described the substitution of the Swiss at half-time as a “precautionary measure”. The same applies to defender Mats Hummels, who also stayed out at half-time and was replaced by Niklas Süle. “Mats felt something in his thigh and Gregor felt his adductors, so we didn’t want to take any risks,” said Terzic. Both should be an option again for the Bundesliga game on Saturday against VfL Bochum (3.30 p.m., in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky).
