Borussia Dortmund president Dr. Reinhard Rauball reflects on the first half of the season

Borussia Dortmund president Dr. Reinhard Rauball believes that they must play with more fight and commitment up until the end, qualities that have helped the club stand out over the years. 

Borussia Dortmund’s first half of the season certainly did not go as they would have imagined. The Black and Yellows were hampered by a raft of injuries to key players over the course of the hinrunde. And results on the pitch also suffered, as they were eliminated from the UEFA Champions League at the group stage.

Borussia Dortmund president Dr. Reinhard Rauball believes that the team failed to meet expectations on a number of occasions during the first half of the season, and they must now prove themselves in the rückrunde. In an interview with Ruhr Nachrichten, Rauball said:

"“We have to bring to the pitch the virtues that have always characterised Borussia Dortmund. Fight and commitment up until the end, the desire to play good football. Looking back, you can’t ignore the bad luck we had with injuries. But in the first half of the season, the team failed to meet expectations on too many occasions.”"

Borussia Dortmund also find themselves nine points behind title rivals Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga standings going into the second half of the season. And while Dr. Reinhard Rauball knows that some of the performances haven’t been good enough, he feels that their points tally in the Bundesliga is not too bad considering the mountain of injuries they have had to deal with so far.

"“To start with, the points tally in the Bundesliga is fine, despite the long list of injuries. We are still in the DFB Cup. Only the results in the Champions League have been disappointing.”“But the team also did not always deliver good performances. We experienced boos in our stadium at the end of the first half of the season. We have to work on making sure that doesn’t happen again.”"

Dr. Reinhard Rauball also believes that they still have some important goals for the second half of the season, especially in the UEFA Europa League.

"“We still have important and worthwhile goals, for example in the Europa League, where we can and must now prove ourselves.”“It will be important for us to completely put the Champions League out of our minds now. And we shouldn’t make the mistake of immediately looking at the possible final in the Europa League either. We should concentrate on the next game, that is, the clash with Glasgow Rangers.”"

Borussia Dortmund are among the favourites to win the UEFA Europa League this season, and will go up against Scottish champions Rangers in the knockout round play-offs in February.