Borussia Dortmund earned a narrow 1-0 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach on Tuesday to seal their passage to the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal. While the win was anything but straight-forward, the Black and Yellows defended really well and ensured that the Gladbach forwards were kept quiet. And Jadon Sancho scored at the end of a devastating counter-attack in the second half to seal the win.
Emre Can, Mats Hummels and Marco Reus were all pleased with the fight Borussia Dortmund showed to overcome the challenge of Gladbach.
"“The first half was difficult, but we knew that Gladbach could not keep it up for 90 minutes,” Can told Sky after the game. “We scored a lovely goal and then fought as a team until the end. We’ve kept another clean sheet. We’re defending better. We’re conceding fewer goals; that’s very important in football. Everyone is running the extra metre. Today we fought to the end and defended superbly after making it 1-0.”"
Marco Reus was proud of the way Dortmund fought to hold on for the win, and said that they have been playing with a different energy since the win over Sevilla last month.
"“I’m very proud of the team and the way we fought in the final minutes. Gladbach is a dangerous team with a clear structure and it was not easy,” Reus said.“Since the Sevilla game, we have had a different energy on the pitch. We’ve started the week well; now we have to recover well and then we’ll prepare for Munich.”"
Mats Hummels heaped praise on Edin Terzic, and said that the 38 year old has a great coaching career ahead of him. “We were tactically well set up & kept our discipline,” Hummels said. “We didn’t do everything right, but we put everything into it. Edin has been doing an excellent job since day one, with his fire and his knowledge of the game. I have a lot of confidence that he will do well in his coaching career.”
Hummels also looked ahead to the crunch Bundesliga clash against Bayern Munich and said that Borussia Dortmund must be ready to put in another fight this weekend. “We have to maintain this level for even longer now. We have Bayern coming up next and we have to be ready to suffer again.”
Borussia Dortmund will be sweating on the fitness of Jadon Sancho and Raphael Guerreiro ahead of the game against Bayern Munich. Both players were forced off on Tuesday evening, and Edin Terzic confirmed after the game that they both felt something in their muscles.
Borussia Dortmund find themselves in fifth place in the Bundesliga standings heading into their game against Bayern. With fourth placed Eintracht Frankfurt still three points ahead, Dortmund will know that they must continue to get results if they want to play Champions League football next season.