It runs and runs at Borussia Dortmund, even previous problem children like Karim Adeyemi arrive. Finally nobody asks about the mentality anymore.
Karim Adeyemi had to explain his spectacular backflip in as much detail as his 60m turbo solo. “I practiced it often on the trampoline, I’m very sure of that,” reported the match winner from Borussia Dortmund, and as he stood there and smiled blissfully in front of the “Wall of Legends” in the interview area, he was a symbol for him entire BVB: “New year, new luck,” says Adeyemi.
Seven wins in seven competitive games in 2023, now the happy 1-0 (0-0) against Croesus FC Chelsea in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16, trigger quite astonishing developments in Dortmund. The term “mentality” would have had the best chance of becoming BVB’s nonsense word of the year – suddenly it’s being used in a positive way.
“We defended ourselves,” oh ha, “showed the right mentality, the right fighting spirit,” praised sporting director Sebastian Kehl. Former problem children have shown “a much better face since January”, Kehl stated, coach Edin Terzic seemed relieved: “Karim has finally arrived too.” Meep, meep, Terzic said, “It was like the Roadrunner. It’s a weapon that’s difficult to defend.” An English reporter even compared Adeyemi to Usain Bolt in his question.
Emre Can, who scratched the ball off the line with the extremely safe goalkeeper Gregor Kobel, is also playing in top form. Julian Brandt carries the team together with Jude Bellingham, a Marius Wolf does not fall behind in the important game. “Everything is going really well at the moment,” Adeyemi said. A Joao Felix hits the crossbar for Chelsea, not the goal – as if a magic hand had sprinkled glitter over BVB.
BVB-“Job not done yet”
However, “the job is not done yet,” as Bellingham warned on Twitter. Chelsea’s €330m winter signings will be even better for the second leg on March 7th, but there’s no reason to downplay them. At Stamford Bridge, the quarter-finals are in sight against the Londoners, who are pumped up with hundreds of millions of euros, although “the result was probably the best thing about this game” (Terzic). The team slogan was: “Let’s go Dortmund, fight and win.”
Despite all the joy, it was worth taking a look at the substitutes’ bench late on Wednesday evening: Because that’s where the captain was sitting. Marco Reus was not in the starting eleven and was not even substituted on. So he’s apparently not needed at the moment when the going gets tough. He was “brutally sorry,” said Terzic, but: “It’s not just about Marco. We also had other guys who weren’t substituted on. He has to respect it, but not accept it.”