It’s not easy to be BVB. A cloud of worries is swirling around the club. Qualification for the premier class is in danger, the players are in danger of missing the European Championships, the situation in the leadership is unclear. After a 2-0 win over Eindhoven, they are one of Europe’s best teams.
Just get rid of the ball, that’s what BVB goalkeeper Gregor Kobel thought in the fourth minute of stoppage time in the round of 16 duel against PSV Eindhoven. Dortmund saved a 1-0 lead in the final seconds of this game. Reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League was close, very close. Kobel’s tee shot flew all over the field. Directly into the hands of Eindhoven’s Walter Benitez and from there a few stops to Luuk de Jong, who played a one-two with Jordan Teze and was free in front of the goal. The shot flew over the goal.
Just get rid of the ball, Kobel thought again and suddenly the ball was actually in the goal. But in that of Eindhoven. This time, veteran Marco Reus, who came on in the final phase for the ailing Jadon Sancho, broke through after a mistake by 18-year-old Issac Babadi, who was also substituted. Goal by Reus, who had recently spent 90 minutes on the bench twice in a row and who was able to celebrate after the game, but whose future is still unclear.
Now Reus shot BVB into the quarter-finals. For the first time since 2021. Even then under coach Edin Terzić, for whom the air in Dortmund had become increasingly thin in recent weeks after the rarely convincing performances in the league. BVB is still in fourth place there, but the remaining program hardly promises any relief in the race to qualify for the premier class with RB Leipzig. Dortmund’s season was finally in danger of slipping away before this second leg against Eindhoven.
BVB players ignored by DFB coach Julian Nagelsmann
“We knew that today would be crucial as to whether the season would be a complete flop or whether we could still do something positive,” said striker Niclas Füllkrug after the final whistle. The game against Eindhoven was more than just a round of 16 game for BVB in the premier class, in which they feel so comfortable this season. It’s their playing field. That’s how they started the game. Anyone who looked at the pitch and the stands of the Westfalenstadion in the first 25, maybe 30 minutes could hardly believe that this was a club plagued by self-doubt with a gang of outcasts on the pitch. Not only was it 1-0, but BVB had won 85 percent of all duels and had a total of seven shots. The guests had not taken place.
The Dortmund team attacked them as if they wanted to take out all the frustration they had built up over the last few weeks on the Dutch around former BVB coach Peter Bosz. And the frustration was huge and had only increased this week with the Nagelsmann leaks about the DFB squad. Mats Hummels, Julian Brandt, Niklas Süle, Nico Schlotterbeck and Co. will not take part in the final tests before the home European Championships. Apart from Niclas Füllkrug, the squad will be without BVB players. Sports director Sebastian Kehl once set out to shape Borussia Germany. Now almost everyone is in danger of missing the unique tournament in their own country. They had imagined it differently.
Sancho makes the stadium rumble
Spurred on by a completely euphoric stadium, the Dortmund team, who had been rejected in this way, rushed through the initial phase. After just three minutes, the Englishman Sancho was hammering wildly on the BVB logo. It was his first goal at the Westfalenstadion since returning home. The former upcoming world star, who was rejected by Manchester United, was able to assert himself after a Dortmund attack and shot flatly into the bottom left corner from 18 meters. The audience suggested this choice to him.
A resounding “shoot” followed the conclusion, only to dissolve into the all-relieving cheer. A little later a murmur went through the stadium. The 23-year-old was dancing on the sidelines with Eindhoven’s Johan Bakayoko. How happy everyone was to be able to see this joy of playing again. But how sure can they be that every good performance from Sancho will drive him further and further away from Dortmund? Because he is still a Manchester United player.
Lozano shows Süle the limits
BVB had further opportunities in the first 25 minutes, but then had to hand over control to Eindhoven. Before the break, the Dutch remained little dangerous, but after the break and the substitution of winger Hirving Lozano, that changed. The 28-year-old showed his limits to full-back Süle, who had replaced Julian Ryerson, who was absent at short notice, but was only one Shot from the post (53′) no threat to BVB keeper Kobel. On the other hand, he distinguished himself several times on the other side of the goal. From there, Bakayoko broke through again and again, but then failed from a tight angle.
The stadium experienced a rare highlight on the Dortmund side just a few seconds after Reus was substituted on. He circled a free kick into the penalty area and Füllkrug pushed the ball over the line. Beer cups flew over the stands, stadium announcer Norbert Dickel paid homage and the fans in the seats took their selfies with the cheering team on the lawn in the background. Then they stopped, but their gaze was no longer directed at their smartphones, but rather, in horror, at the monitors in the VIP rooms. Füllkrug may have been offside when he scored the goal with a touch of his shoulder, the pictures there revealed. No goal. Only the beers were lost.
So instead of cheering, off to the beer stand and shaking even more. At some point a man wearing an Eindhoven scarf couldn’t take it anymore, he dashed onto the field, was carried down and saw stoppage time as he passed: five minutes! Just get rid of the ball, Kobel thought, and the game came to an end with Reus’ goal.
Even more sickness certificates in April
The fans in the stadium sang Dortmund’s song from the European Cup at brutal volume. “First round of sick leave, then grandma is dead, we have to work overtime,” says the classic, which before the premier class season no one expected that it would resonate until April 2024, that so many employers are under the The BVB fans have to do without this week. The group with Paris Saint-Germain, Newcastle United and AC Milan appeared too strong. The team, which had only been beaten once in 2024, appeared too crisis-stricken around the games against Eindhoven. But there the outcasts sat on March 13, 2024, looking up at the south stand and shouting the song. “When you have a stadium like this behind you, you have a bit of a feeling that you are unbeatable here,” said Füllkrug. The late bloomer particularly enjoyed it.
“We’re happy about progressing now. That creates a bit of peace,” said sports director Kehl. But you can’t expect much peace and quiet in Dortmund. However, the club had pulled itself together for this one evening. But the question that overshadowed everything was about the players who might not have been nominated by national coach Julian Nagelsmann. “I’m not here today as a representative of the national team. I would much rather talk about Borussia Dortmund’s progress,” said Kehl and disappeared into the already exciting next few weeks for Dortmund.
Watzke has to arrange his successor
“At the end of the day it will be decided in the Bundesliga,” said managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke in the run-up to the game. Probably also to take some pressure off the team. “There can’t be a good season in which we don’t end up playing in the Champions League.” In the remaining games, BVB still has to play against Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, VfB Stuttgart and RB Leipzig. It does not look good.
Maybe fifth place in the league will be enough. But BVB will probably have to survive at least one more round in the Champions League. However, Watzke was able to rule out an end to Borussia due to a possible failure to qualify for the premier class, to the relief of all BVB fans. Liverpool, he said, had shown it this season after the weak previous year by moving into the second-tier Europa League. “They didn’t say: Now we’re going to dissolve the club. It just goes on and this year they’re back on top.”
But things won’t go much further for Watzke, who will be leaving in 2025 after more than 20 years in a responsible position. There is still a threat of not only a final year without the premier class, in which BVB has established itself as a permanent guest during Watzke’s tenure, but also a fight for its legacy. BVB wants to have this sorted out in April.
At least on the sporting level, with a new sports director. Here too, nothing has been clarified yet. As well as the contract situation of Hummels and Reus, the situation of coach Terzic, the future of the loan players Ian Maatsen and Sancho and of course the participation of possible DFB players in the European Championship. Even after returning to the top 8 in Europe, Borussia Dortmund remains a gigantic construction site.