With the 0-4 defeat at FC Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-final first leg, Dortmund has little chance of progressing. The BVB coach was particularly annoyed by the way it happened.
“I think we deserved to lose,” said Niko Kovac on DAZN after the clear defeat in Barcelona. ‘After the 0-1, we did quite well for 20 minutes in the first half. After that, a lot of things were piecework again, we had no composure in our actions and we punished ourselves,’ the Dortmund coach analyzed dryly.
While opponent Barcelona commanded a great deal of respect (“We saw that the guys have quality – a clear and deserved victory”), the 53-year-old was unhappy with his own performance. “I would have liked us to score another goal,” said Kovac, alluding to good chances for Serhou Guirassy towards the end of the first half, in which the striker did not hit the ball properly. “We have to close these out,” said Kovac.
Three goals against after counterattacks ‘definitely too many’
Defensively, he was annoyed by the way the goals were conceded: ”The last one was a throw-in for us, then we concede a counterattack. Then a turnover in the middle, also a counterattack. Then a set-piece situation, a counterattack. That’s three goals against the run, that’s definitely too much and not good.” For the first goal against the run, on the other hand, ‘we were flat at the back, we have to close ranks, then it doesn’t happen. These are the little things that are simply punished at the highest level.’
But Kovac was particularly hard on the wingers. “You can lose the ball, that’s part of it, but then you have to make the right decisions. It was about defending two-on-two on the wing. It’s certainly not always easy for the wingers to go with their full-backs. But at this level, you have to work back. If you don’t do that, the two-on-one situations you have to defend against at the back will punish you.”
Kovac demands better defending
Kovac didn’t want to blame a lack of willingness for the fact that this wasn’t implemented despite the appropriate instructions, but he did say: “I do think that one thinks of the other when I save a gear or meter now, then I can use that going forward. But as I keep saying: if you don’t have the ball, you can’t score goals. First of all, you have to actively defend the ball. And that’s exactly what we didn’t do well on the flanks. That’s why we kept getting overrun on those sides.”
With regard to the rest of the season, which begins on Saturday with an away game at Bayern Munich (Saturday, 6:30 p.m.), the defeat was of course ”a damper.” It is clear that the task at the league leaders will “not be easy”, said Kovac, who underlined this with clear words to his team: “We have to defend more and better than today. Because without defense, we will also have problems in Munich.”
