Borussia Dortmund’s Emré Can and Waldemar Anton hopeful of another crack at Champions League glory | OneFootball

Borussia Dortmund have now strung together two consecutive Bundesliga wins against two potential European contenders. That naturally doesn’t exactly mitigate the fact that Germany’s second largest club finds itself in the midst of its worst season in well over a decade. Two BVB professionals – squad captain Emré Can and summer transfer Waldemar Anton – have both spoken on the disappointing campaign with German publications in the last few days.

Anton conducted an interview with Transfermarkt while Can sat down with Kicker. The pair answered specific questions about their performance issues this season, yet remained optimistic about the prospect that – just like last year – a strong performance in the Champions League can cancel out a lower finish in the Bundesliga table. Barcelona await in the quarter-finals of the current UCL competition. The first leg takes place at the Camp Nou on Wednesday.

“I’ve not lived up to my personal expectations,” Anton told Transfermarkt. “Of course, I’ve been injured three times this season which is a lot by my standards. But that’s no excuse. It’s been quite intense. There have been periods in which I haven’t played a lot. I’ve never experienced a phase like this in my career.”

“If we had an explanation or a simple solution we would have implemented it long ago,” Can noted in his conversation with Kicker. “I can’t rule out the possibility that some may think ’99 percent is good enough for the Bundesliga today’. That’s not the case. The league is too strong.”

“We’ve rarely managed to perform on the pitch for 90 minutes,” Anton added. “Maybe we’ve lacked a bit of luck too. But one must first and foremost get the basics right. I believe if you do that, you can get the luck back.“

When it came time to discuss the Champions League campaign, Can’s interview focused heavily on Wednesday’s forthcoming quarter-final fixture against Barça. The BVB skipper spoke on, among other things, squaring off against former German national team head coach Hansi Flick and Bundesliga legend Robert Lewandowski. Dortmund already squared off against Barcelona in the group phase of the current competition.

“That will help us a great deal because we already know something about the opponents processes,” Can said. “I have defended against him [Lewandowski] quite a few times. Yes, he is unpleasant because he is still one of the best strikers in the world. But I have also managed well against him

“We’ve proven that we can keep up with the big teams in Europe,” Can continued. “We did that both last year and this year. We have an excellent opportunity over the next two matches. I’ve been at this [13 years of UCL experience] a long time and am really looking forward to it.“

“I’m certainly not going to complain that we get to play in the Champions League,” Anton said. “We envisioned quite a different season. Conversations are nevertheless taking place. trust is being built.”

GGFN | Peter Weis