Champions League
Breathe a sigh of relief at BVB – Brandt: “Don’t fall into a hole”
Dortmund’s Julian Brandt celebrates his goal. photo
© Bernd Thissen/dpa
Just three days after the 4-0 defeat against Bayern, BVB showed a remarkable reaction in the Champions League. With the 2-0 win over Newcastle, pride returns. The round of 16 is getting closer.
The relief was great. The mature performance at 2:0 (1:0) over Newcastle United helped Borussia Dortmund overcome the humiliating league summit against FC Bayern (0:4) just three days earlier.
“I’m very pleased that we didn’t fall into a hole and ruin a lot of things this season due to a bad phase,” said goalscorer Julian Brandt (79th), who was named “Man of the Match”, commenting on the well-deserved success. As in the 1-0 win in the first duel against the English two weeks earlier, BVB was the better team this time too. “It was a very good performance from the back to the front,” said Brandt.
Kehl: “Really delivered a good statement”
Similar to the national player, Sebastian Kehl also seemed to have been relieved of heavy burdens. “That was the right answer. You can see what this team can achieve – even in this group. I think we have to revise some of the criticism we received on Saturday today,” said the sports director, referring to the heavy criticism Media scolding for Dortmund following the game against Munich. “With two wins against Newcastle we made a really good statement.”
After a weak start in Group F, which was classified as particularly difficult, against Paris (0:2) and AC Milan (0:0), coach Edin Terzic’s team managed to recover thanks to Niclas Füllkrug’s first Champions League goal (26th). and Brand’s counter-attack gave us a promising starting position in the fight for the round of 16.
Because Paris (6 points) lost 2-1 in Milan (5) a few hours later, BVB (7) even took the lead in the table. “Considering that many had already written us off after two games, things are looking pretty good now,” said Brandt. Kehl is also in good spirits that the fourth-place team in the Bundesliga will survive the winter in the premier class: “Now we have it in our own hands and we don’t want to let it be taken away from us.”