Michael Zorc: Borussia Dortmund’s UEFA Champions League exit a major setback

Michael Zorc has commented on Borussia Dortmund’s UEFA Champions League exit, calling it a major setback both in sporting and financial terms.

Borussia Dortmund crashed out of the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday evening after suffering a 3-1 defeat to Sporting CP in Lisbon. The defeat means that the Black and Yellows will be playing in the UEFA Europa League after the turn of the year. Michael Zorc sees Wednesday’s defeat as a bitter moment and a major setback for the club.

The Borussia Dortmund sporting director spoke about the causes and the consequences of the team’s early exit from the UEFA Champions League on Thursday.

"“It’s a bitter moment for us,” Zorc said. “We have failed in the Champions League. Especially after winning the first two games, it just hurts at the moment.”“It’s a setback not only financially, but also in sporting terms and our image. Economically, it hurts, especially in this situation. We are coming out of the Corona crisis, we don’t know what will happen in the next few months. You have to go very far in the Europa League to compensate for that. It’s a major setback.”"

Borussia Dortmund will certainly feel disappointed with the manner in which they lost to Sporting CP on Wednesday. Pedro Goncalves took full advantage of Dortmund’s sloppy defending to score a brace and give the home side a two goal lead going into the break.

Pedro Porro then added a third in the second half, before Donyell Malen scored a late consolation goal for Borussia Dortmund in stoppage time. BVB also ended the game with ten men as Emre Can was given a controversial red card.

Zorc felt that Borussia Dortmund made things too easy for Sporting CP with their poor defending and individual mistakes.

"“Sporting will still be wondering how they were able to score the first goal,” Zorc said. “We just helped them out, defended too poorly, made too many individual mistakes that caused us to go behind. Then we didn’t have the means to turn it around in the end.”"

Borussia Dortmund must quickly pick themselves back up again, with their next game right around the corner. Marco Rose’s side make the trip to VfL Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga on Saturday. And another massive game awaits them next weekend against title rivals Bayern Munich.