With the home win against bottom team 1. FC Heidenheim, Borussia Dortmund has reduced the gap to FC Bayern. BVB star Nico Schlotterbeck made people sit up and take notice after the game.
At Borussia Dortmund they sense a chance in the championship fight: while they were nine points behind FC Bayern at the winter break and eleven points after the first half of the season, BVB has moved up to six points after the difficult victory on Sunday against 1. FC Heidenheim (3:2). Reason enough for national player Nico Schlotterbeck to declare war.
“As BVB, you also have to have the right to tell the fans that we want to become champions,” said the defender on “DAZN”: “Now there are six points, three less than after the winter break. That’s why I can say and so can the boys: We want to attack now.”
“Maybe they’ll start thinking slowly”
The German record champions stumbled again on Saturday at Hamburger SV (2:2), after which the Munich team had suffered their first defeat in the Bundesliga against FC Augsburg (1:2). Dortmund took advantage of the leader’s mistake, albeit with a lot of confusion.
“We won today with a bit of luck, but I don’t give a shit about that,” said Schlotterbeck: “That’s how football is, now it’s six points. Maybe they’ll start to think about it slowly.”
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BVB’s leading player expects great opportunities in the coming weeks. On the 21st matchday of the Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund can beat VfL Wolfsburg in the away game (Saturday, 3:30 p.m.) and reduce the gap to three points for the time being. The next day, FC Bayern plays at home against the in-form TSG Hoffenheim.
But Schlotterbeck also knows: “Of course we have to keep scoring points. We’ll try to be there.” On February 28th there will be a direct clash with Bayern in Dortmund.
Key scene: Schlotterbeck cheers on Guirassy
Against the courageous Heidenheimers, crisis striker Serhou Guirassy was the center of attention. He turned the game around with a brace (68th minute/hand penalty, 70th), but also missed another penalty (85th). Schlotterbeck initially grabbed the ball for the penalty kick, but then passed the ball to Guirassy and encouraged the audience to cheer on the striker.
“I asked Serhou if he wanted to shoot and he said yes,” the BVB defender explained the scene before the 2-2 equalizer. Just two minutes after the penalty was converted, Guirassy scored the 3-2 winner.
Waldemar Anton (44th) had previously shot Dortmund into the lead, but Heidenheim’s Julian Niehues also scored a brace (45th + 5/48th) but left the outsiders dreaming of a big surprise.
