Reaction to 2-1 defeat at Hoffenheim: “No need to blame the referee” | OneFootball

Borussia Dortmund failed to find a suitable response to the 0-1 defeat against Bayer Leverkusen the previous week and suffered a second consecutive loss on Saturday afternoon with a 1-2 defeat at TSG Hoffenheim. Accordingly, the mood among the black-and-yellow protagonists after the match was rather subdued.

Lars Ricken did not leave unmentioned the two extremely unfortunate and bitter handball penalties from BVB’s perspective that led to the goals conceded, but in his statement on the club website he then focused on his own team’s insufficient performance: “We don’t need to point the finger at the referee. We could have shown more courage from the start,” said the BVB managing director, who went into more detail: “If you are clean in your processes, if you are technically sound and secure in your passing, you will get your chances. But we did that far too rarely. In the second half we were dominant, pushed them back, but we didn’t put them under enough pressure to create enough scoring chances.”

Ricken found agreement from Daniel Svensson, who felt the performance was only decent in spells: “We have to play with more intensity and move more. In the phases when we play like that, we are really good and a very difficult opponent to beat. We have to do that throughout the entire game – not just for one half or 30 minutes.”

Defeat “not undeserved” for Kovac

Meanwhile, Niko Kovac was mainly frustrated with his team’s first 45 minutes: “In the first half we saw clear dominance from TSG. We weren’t on the pitch. We had too many simple turnovers. We produced too little going forward and then fell behind through a penalty,” said the BVB coach, who accepted the decision but described the handball rule in general as “absurd.”

Photo: IMAGO

Kovac was then satisfied with the reaction after the break, but also made no secret of the fact that it was still not enough going forward and that, all things considered, the result was fair: “The second half was much better from us. We moved the ball much better, offered ourselves better, pushed the opponent back. Apart from the goal and one half-chance, though, we still didn’t manage to create many more dangerous situations in front of goal. And with the second penalty, you lose. That’s disappointing for us, but not undeserved.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.