adminBERLIN. — Borussia Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp admits feeling the pressure as his side resume their fight to stay in Germany’s top flight today at fellow Champions League soccer side Bayer Leverkusen.
“My mood is very tense, like it would be just before a very difficult exam, but we are in better shape than we were at the start of the season,” insisted Klopp on Thursday.
“Leverkusen is a very important game, one of 17 very important games now for us, but I have been looking forward to this since the final whistle of our last league match at Bremen.”
Just over 18 months after losing the 2013 Champions League final to arch-rivals Bayern Munich, Dortmund are second from bottom and threatened with relegation from the Bundesliga.
Their domestic fall from grace has been even more dramatic on the back of a successful European campaign which has seen them reach the Champions League’s last 16.
Like most teams, Dortmund had expected to drop a league point here or there after five of the squad returned weary from helping Germany lift a fourth World Cup title last July.
But Klopp’s dejected figure on the sidelines, struggling to accept any one of Dortmund’s 10 league defeats, became an all-too common sight. — AFP.
Online Reporter