Stupid in Frankfurt, lucky 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 did not 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 went to court with 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 wants to prove themselves. Me I think we didn’t do that 100 percent today.”
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 rows, 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).
Can: “We wanted to show that we can do everything”
Unlike midfielder Can, football teacher Terzic asked for leniency for the Dortmund pros, who were exhausted after a long time chasing appointments: “It was the fifth English week. You have to forgive one or the other.” Nevertheless, disappointment also rang through to 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 the ball a lot 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 BVB’s embarrassing elimination from the preliminary round last season, when BVB only finished third in a supposedly easy group and a little later failed in the Europa League at Glasgow Rangers: “It was a very Satisfactory group stage. We qualified for the knockout stages a match before the end. That hasn’t always been the case in the past.”
