Borussia Dortmund Haberleri

Boris Rupert reporting 

Julian Brandt (speaking to SAT.1): “The situation is rubbish. It’s crap to go into the break like this. It’s an unsatisfying end to an unsatisfactory first half of the season. We had the same problem in the first half as we did in Augsburg. We had a lot of chances, but we weren’t cool-headed enough. We came out in the second half and failed to do all the things we did well in the first. We were rushed in our build-up play, we gave Mainz too much space, conceded the ball too often and allowed them to create chances.”

First-half siege: Dortmund’s 14 shots at goal in the first half is a club record this season.

Edin Terzic (speaking at the press conference): “In this game, we showed the two faces that we see far too often from our team. We had a great first half, enjoyed a lot of possession and were very effective in our pressing. We had the chance to take a bigger lead. Although we then conceded an equaliser just before the break, we resolved to remain as active in these areas and continue to execute our game plan cleanly and effectively. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to do that. We were very unsettled from the start, became very passive and had to defend a lot of counter-attacks. On top of that, we weren’t able to finish the game with eleven players due to Sébastien Haller’s injury. And yet we still came close to scoring the winning goal. We are heading into the winter break with this disappointment.”

“A new and interesting opponent for us. In Zilina, we are expecting to face a team with an attacking mindset, who have already scored twelve goals in four games, but have also conceded six goals,” said Lars Ricken, director of the BVB Youth Performance Centre, about the draw. In the two rounds of the “domestic champions path”, the champions of Slovakia first eliminated Cypriot side FC Patos (5-0, 1-0) and then beat Sparta Prague (2-2, 4-4, 4-2 on penalties). Domestically, MSK Zilina currently lie sixth in the league, eleven points behind league leaders AC Trencin and ten behind second-placed Slovan Bratislava.

BVB sporting director Sebastian Kehl said: “Under Jan and his team, our U23s have really improved on the pitch. In the future, we want to use this team even more to give talented youngsters – especially those from our youth performance centre – early match practice in the men’s game. This will help create a development platform with a clear connection to the first team. Jan is just the right coach to achieve that goal.”

Sebastian Kehl: “PSV are an attractive and challenging draw. They have won all 16 of their league matches, with a goal difference of 56-6. At the moment, Eindhoven are the standard-setters in the Netherlands. We’re looking forward to a reunion with our former coach Peter Bosz and will go into these matches feeling very optimistic and full of self-confidence. Our clear objective is to qualify for the quarter-final again for the first time since 2020/21.”

Hans-Joachim Watzke: “Anyone who comes through the group stage of the UEFA Champions League and advances to the knockout round clearly has a lot of quality. Nobody should be under any illusions. PSV are a top team that have won every single one of their league games. That speaks volumes. We’re looking forward to these matches and embracing the challenge.”

The opponent in the round of Europe’s best 16 teams will be one of the last winners of the old European Cup. Thirty-five years ago, in the summer of 1988, a PSV side featuring the likes of Hans van Breukelen, Ronald Koeman, Sören Lerby and Willy van de Kerkhof beat Benfica in the final to lift the trophy. The 24-time Dutch champions and 11-time cup winners have previously crossed swords with Borussia Dortmund only once. Both teams drew 1-1 in Dortmund in the group phase of the 2002/2003 campaign (BVB scored through Jan Koller); BVB then ran out 3-1 winners in the return fixture thanks to goals from Koller, Tomas Rosicky and Marcio Amoroso.

Edin Terzic (head coach): ”We knew that there would be tough challenges to come in the Champions League. Now we’ve been drawn with Eindhoven. They are having a perfect season, with 16 wins from 16 games – it doesn’t get any better than that. They’ve scored 56 goals in 16 games and only conceded six. We know Peter Bosz very well, both from his time at BVB as well as Leverkusen. We’re looking forward to the draw. But we also know that there’s still a long way to go until we face each other in mid-February. It won’t be easy away from home given the atmosphere, but we know that we have a great chance of making it through to the next round.”