Dortmund’s subotic convinced: “we can do better”
Everyday life in the bundesliga, thrills in the champions league – for the professionals of the almost dethroned champions from dortmund, the main focus is on the european kings league.
"It's like we're going to an adventure park," neven subotic confessed before wednesday's quarterfinal first leg at FC malaga, "we want to stay as long as possible. The best roller coasters come at the end."The chance of BVB making it to the last four for the first time in 15 years adds to the excitement. "We know we can do something very rough," subotic told the "kicker" soccer league.
Coach jurgen klopp is looking forward to the duel with the fifth-placed team in the primera division with the same euphoria as the central defender: "we have a tremendous appetite for this game against malaga. This is the worst thing that has happened to us so far."
Sunshine and temperatures of 20 degrees when we landed on the costa del sol raised the level of anticipation. A strong performance at the champions league debutants should bring the club, which is still unbeaten in the competition, one step closer to its dream of reaching the final at wembley – and awaken further feelings of springtime. No one from the team paid attention to the public talk of a winless. "This game has the same significance for us as if we were playing against real or barca," commented keeper roman weidenfeller.
The danger that the borussia underestimate the opponent seems small. "We are far from dreaming and take very seriously the opponent malaga. But we are looking forward to two more festive days in the champions league," said BVB boss reinhard rauball. Manager michael zorc concurred: "we haven't come this far in 15 years – that underlines how important these two games are for us. It was the biggest mistake we can make to underestimate malaga. They did not reach the quarterfinals by walkover."
The dortmunder are well advised to heed the advice of mesut ozil. In the opinion of the german international soccer player in the service of real madrid, full concentration is required in the stadium "la rosaleda", which has a capacity of just under 29,000 spectators: "be careful. You can't underestimate malaga. We lost 2:3 there, so dortmund should be warned."Klopp's assessment of the opponent is similarly high: "this is the strongest defensive team we have played so far."
Along with malaga, borussia is also considered a surprise team. After recent impressive performances in the konigsklasse, they are now being treated as one of the favorites. The great enthusiasm for the competition accelerated the recovery of all those professionals who had suffered wounds in the hard-fought 2:1 on saturday in stuttgart. So despite a broken nose, eagle defender marcel schmelzer wants to play with a hastily produced special mask. In addition, sven bender and kevin grobkreutz underlined their reputation as warhorses and signaled readiness for action despite painful fub injuries.
Like dortmunder, the spain team led by former bayern pros martin demichelis and roque santa cruz celebrated a successful dress rehearsal with a 3-1 win at rayo vallecano. Especially the defensive strength of the opponent, where club owner abdullah al thani significantly cut the money supply, could cause borussia trouble. Coach manuel pellegrini's team has not conceded a goal in its past nine european cup home games. Defender demichelis summed up the situation: "with bayern, the champions league was obligatory. With malaga it's a dream. We have nothing to lose now."
