BVB wowed their fans with a gala performance on Sunday evening. SIGNAL IDUNA PARK shook, the South Stand went wild. The DAZN presenters waited an unusually long time for their first interviewees, because the team was enjoying the acclaim.

“Football lives off emotions. If you can’t let yourself be applauded by such amazing fans after a game like that, then when can you?” asked Marius Wolf later, before adding: “It gives us enormous strength.” For a title race that will likely remain exciting until the last second.

“We were four points behind before the game, now it’s one point,” Edin Terzic said matter-of-factly at the press conference, adding: “The season has shown us how crazy it is. There are three games left, two of which are at home. If we manage to win those three games and if we manage to be the first team to take the lead in the last game too, then we’ll be in front and we’ll have increased the pressure.”

To that end, the team must give everything every (training) day “so that it works out in the end,” continued the coach, who started preparing for the home match against Gladbach this Monday morning.

The personnel situation continues to improve. Nico Schlotterbeck was already back in the squad but was not missed on the pitch, with Niklas Süle successfully completing 98% of his passes and winning 100% of his challenges, while Mats Hummels played an “outstanding game in all areas” (Terzic) and could be brought off early in view of the scoreline in order to delay the imminent danger of a yellow card suspension for another week at least.

Hummels is one of three Borussia players named by kicker in today’s “Team of the Round”, as is Jude Bellingham, who delivered “91% of his passes under pressure to a team-mate”. Yes, there is even a statistic for that. Terzic was even more emphatic when he talked about Karim Adeyemi, the other double goalscorer: “Out of 100 actions, 99 were really, really good. The way he used his speed of almost 37 km/h as a weapon for us in the press too and the way he practically won the ball back himself for his second goal was outstandingly good.” 

The dream of a 09th championship lives on.
Boris Rupert