Reactions: “...the coach is allowed to be annoyed about that” | OneFootball

(on Sky): “If we had lost today, the other teams would have been back in contention. We are second and want to stay there. Niko (Kovac, ed.) likes to say: If you can’t win, you shouldn’t lose. And so the same applies here: if you can’t be first, you should at least be second. There were 6,000 Dortmund fans in the stadium today, so you have to keep giving your all. Köln had three corners after just five minutes, then we got a corner and ended up in the lead without quite knowing how. It wasn’t a good phase. And with an extra man, you really have to see it through to the finish line. We’re obviously very happy about the three points, but we’re not entirely satisfied. We still have five home games left, and our fans will spur us on.”

Sebastian Kehl (in the mixed zone): “We almost let the game slip away. That can’t be our standard. We expect every Borussia Dortmund player to give their all every weekend. Now we only have matches on Saturdays. It’s all about getting your head in the right place for these tasks. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to do that for 90 minutes today and were almost punished for it.”

Niko Kovac (on Sky): “We won a game tonight in which we didn’t play well – as a coach you are allowed to be annoyed about that. We lost against Bayern last week, but I still liked the way we played. Today we won, but I didn’t like the way we played at all. We weren’t sharp enough. If everyone runs one metre less, then you’re missing tackles somewhere, you’re missing challenges, and ultimately you’re missing what you need to stay in the game. If it had happened to us, I would have been just as upset as Lukas (Kwasniok on the penalty scene, ed.). Yan Couto doesn’t see the ball, but his hand is still on it. And according to the rules, we couldn’t have complained if there had been a penalty.”

Felix Nmecha (in the mixed zone): “There are definitely issues we need to discuss, but it’s generally difficult to find a new focus now that Bayern are out of the picture. We have to stay positive. It was an important win for us. But I want us to kill off games like this more quickly in future. We mustn’t just focus on the negative aspects now. We’ve lost two games in the Bundesliga so far. It’s not as if we’re doing badly in the league…”

Maximilian Beier (on Sky): "I would have liked to see a bit more confidence, but a win is a win. We now have nine games left, we want to win all nine – and then we'll see where we end up. It still hurts a bit, a bit of red, a bit of blue, but I don't blame him (referring to the scene with Köln's Jahmai Simpson-Pusey that led to the red card, ed.). He was trying to win the ball. So it's all good."Transcribed by Boris Rupert