Reactions to the 2-0 win over Gladbach: "That was a hard-fought victory" | OneFootball

Borussia Dortmund bid farewell to the short Christmas break with the hoped-for three points and claimed second place, at least for one night. The 2-0 victory on Friday evening at Signal Iduna Park against Borussia Mönchengladbach was, however, a hard-fought battle and was only secured with the second goal by Maximilian Beier in the seventh minute of stoppage time. Accordingly, after the final whistle, the joy of the win was mixed with a sense of relief.

"It was a hard-earned victory. We had to work hard. But overall, I believe we deserved to keep the three points at home today," was the conclusion of Emre Can, who wished for an earlier decision and offered special praise for Niklas Süle, who joined the team due to personnel issues in defense: "We need to seal the deal earlier. We have to kill off such games sooner. Niklas is still a top, top player. He was involved in both goals. He crossed for the first, and for the second, he won the ball and played it out wide. Defensively, he was always there when it got dangerous."

Julian Brandt, who put BVB on the winning path early with his opening goal, was particularly pleased with the victory, not least because of recent results but also in memory of past years: "It was important to win this game after so many draws. We've celebrated many Christmases without a win under our belt, so this feels extremely good."

Niko Kovac sees a "deserved victory"

Coach Niko Kovac was visibly relieved, as he can now expect a much calmer break: "I am very happy that we won. In the end, it was deserved," said the BVB coach, who would have liked to see the 2-0 earlier: "We only allowed one dangerous shot from Gladbach, and we left one or two really good chances ourselves."

Sebastian Kehl placed the match in a positive overall assessment of recent months: "In the end, we are satisfied and conclude this year with a successful game. We want to take the next step, we need to continue developing. Overall, we have become significantly more stable. We have lost only one Bundesliga game in this first half of the season so far," summarized the sporting director, who also sees room for improvement and asked for patience in this regard: "Of course, we can play even better football, we can also continue to develop, but we have made a huge step forward. We need a little time for some things."

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