Kovac writes off titles
©IMAGO
This article first appeared on March 1 at 8:47 a.m. and was updated following the official diagnosis.
Borussia Dortmund’s captain Emre Can is out for a long time after his injury in the top Bundesliga game against FC Bayern Munich (2:3). The doctor “didn’t have a good feeling” after the first examination, said coach Niko Kovac on “Sky” after the final whistle. When asked whether it was a cruciate ligament injury, Kovac replied: “It looks a bit like it. It is, and he heard something too.” The fears were confirmed on Sunday. As BVB announced, Can suffered a torn cruciate ligament in his left knee.
“Emre’s injury is extremely bitter. Not just for him, but for all of us. He is our captain, always puts himself at the service of the team and is an important part of our club. Emre will receive every support from us in the next few months so that he can get fully healthy again,” said sports director Sebastian Kehl.
“That makes me really sentimental,” Kovac had already explained after the game. The Dortmund captain’s contract expires at the end of the season. Can injured his left knee towards the end of the first half. The 48-time national player initially did not want to be substituted and came back onto the field. “He then continued again and I think the second action finished him off, unfortunately,” said Kovac, who replaced his defender in added time in the first half.
“I asked him and the doctors didn’t know what was going on. They wanted to examine him, he said: I’ll carry on now. Then you as a doctor can’t say anything,” Kovac defended the BVB medical department.
BVB coach Kovac is almost writing off the championship
With a view to the lost top game, Coach Kovac summed up: “I think that we showed a really good performance today after the game in Bergamo. Above all, how we held up. We defended ourselves really well and the team really deserves a compliment. On the other hand, we know: FC Bayern Munich is world class, just when you look at the first goal, how Joshua Kimmich finds Serge and how he then puts in the third. That’s what it is at the end of the day The difference was noticeable today. But I still have to and would like to compliment my team and I would like to do so.”
The game was an “advertisement” for the Bundesliga, in which Dortmund will no longer be aiming for the championship for the time being. “We still have one goal. We now want to finish second in the Champions League. It’s eleven points, anything can happen in football, but I’m not naïve. We want to ensure that we continue to keep an eye on the rear-view mirror or that the boys behind us become smaller,” said Kovac.
Dortmund’s Schlotterbeck in focus: “I was a bit lucky”
Meanwhile, Nico Schlotterbeck was self-critical after the emotional rollercoaster. The 26-year-old was directly involved in most of the crucial scenes. The national defender was honest about one moment: After a good quarter of an hour, Schlotterbeck could have been thrown off the field. “I think you can give a red card. I was a bit lucky, yes,” Schlotterbeck confessed to “Sky” about his violent foul on Josip Stanisic, for which he only saw a yellow card.
Schlotterbeck hit Stanisic on the left leg with his studs and trapped the Croatian’s ankle with both legs. “It’s a brutal intensity here,” said Dortmund sports director Lars Ricken later in the “ZDF-Sportstudio”: “We were a bit lucky that it was only a yellow card.” Four days earlier, Schlotterbeck had seen the red card as a substitute in Dortmund’s Champions League exit at Atalanta Bergamo. The Dortmund player could have seen himself sent off on Saturday after the violent scene. Only eight minutes after his entry against Stanisic, Schlotterbeck had given his team the lead with a header and was celebrating so intensely that he jumped over the boards and cheered with the fans. He didn’t see a second yellow card for that.
“We can now throw everything out,” the defender later said angrily. “If you eliminate everything, then we won’t have football anymore. But then, I’ll tell you honestly, at some point I’ll play chess. Because if I get a yellow card for it, then it’ll stop.” Schlotterbeck was in the spotlight again in the second half when he hit Stanisic again in the 70th minute – this time in the penalty area – and caused a penalty. Goalscorer Harry Kane converted it to make it 2-1 for the record champions. Here too, Schlotterbeck could have seen yellow again and therefore yellow-red. “I think it was a very, very easy contact,” he said. “And then I wouldn’t know how to give myself yellow for it.” Schlotterbeck was recently missing due to a yellow card suspension and then muscular problems.
