That obviously had to go: After Borussia Dortmund’s disappointing 2-2 (1-1) draw in the Champions League against Bodø/Glimt, Nico Schlotterbeck sent very clear words to his teammates.
After his team gave up two leads against the Norwegian outsiders (Julian Brandt had scored both goals) and thus left two points in the fight for direct entry into the round of 16 of the premier class, the BVB defense chief was satisfied. Just minutes after the final whistle, Schlotterbeck was interviewed by the streaming service “DAZN” and gave free rein to his feelings. And he didn’t mince his words.
“It’s not bitter, it’s really bad.”
When asked how bitter the 2-2 draw against Bodø/Glimt was, Schlotterbeck was clear. “What does bitter mean? I already mentioned at half-time that after taking the lead we started playing extremely erratically and had unbelievably bad first contacts. Everyone plays their own game, the players who come in lose every ball. I always say that the winning mentality also means killing the game – we couldn’t manage that at all.”said the German national player.
And further: “We chip in front of the goalkeeper, go around one or two players and want to make it a little nicer. That’s not enough because we’re playing in the Champions League and that’s far too little. We can go to 13 points here and I think some people didn’t realize how important that is here. That’s why it’s not bitter, but really bad.”
With a win, BVB would have moved up to fourth place and would have taken a big step towards direct qualification for the round of 16, for which they have to make it into the top 8 in the group phase of the Champions League. Instead, Dortmund is now only in tenth place ahead of the remaining games at Tottenham Hotspur (January 21, 2026) and against Inter Milan (January 28).
The BVB jokers were no help this time
What probably annoyed Schlotterbeck so much, apart from this missed opportunity, was that his words in the dressing room after the first half didn’t have enough of an effect on his teammates: “We come out of halftime well and then have one or two good phases. But killing the game is a quality matter – and if you don’t do that, you end up with a score of 2-2, which isn’t good enough. That’s something we have to address too. I said it loudly to the team at halftime.”
However, Schlotterbeck was least happy with the performance of the players who came on as a substitute. What did he miss most? “Intensity! If you come in in the 60th minute, I expect 30 minutes of full steam. It all looked nice, we combined left and right, but you have to kill, we didn’t do that.”said the 26-year-old. It was fitting that Karim Adeyemi was one of those affected by one of his “worst games” spoke. “That was nothing”said the striker on “DAZN”.
Schlotterbeck: “That can’t be the claim”
And so there was almost a defeat because Bodø/Glimt had two great opportunities to make it 3-2 in the last minutes, while BVB couldn’t do anything. “After the 2-2 draw, we no longer had a chance to score, we played incredibly poorly for the last 15 minutes. The opponent had more possession of the ball than us in the last few minutes, that can’t be the aim, especially not in a home game.”said Schlotterbeck.
At the end he reiterated how groundbreaking this ultimately unpleasant evening was for Dortmund: “That wasn’t enough and I think some people didn’t realize how important it was today. Because now we have to win both games again, otherwise we won’t be in the top 8. Then we’ll have two more games again (BVB would have to qualify for the round of 16 via the playoffs, ed.) and everyone gets upset that he plays too much.”