Borussia Dortmund-head coach Niko Kovac was happy with the 2-1 comeback victory of his team in Lille in the Champions League on Wednesday, but predicted that they would have to lift their game further to see Barcelona in the quarterfinals.
The Germans went home 1-1 last week and went a five-minute goal in the reverse match in France, but fought back with two second half goals to go through a total of 3-2.
Dortmund is for the ninth time in the quarterfinals of the Champions League and has achieved this phase in successive seasons for the first time since this in 2012-13 and 2013-14.
“It was a great team effort. It was a shame that we did a goal, but the team still dominated the game,” Kovac told Dazn.
“In general there were many opportunities for a Champions League road competition. That shows that the team has quality and is born for games like this.”
Yes, please. pic.twitter.com/xm9yweu9gf
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Emre Can scored from the penalty spot in the 55th minute to cancel Jonathan David's early opener, before Max Beier hit the winner 11 minutes later.
Kovac said that next month Dortmund would get a more difficult fight against Barcelona, which in the round of 16 beered Benfica, but still had faith in the opportunities of his side to beat the Spaniards.
“Lille is a strong team on the ball. But Barcelona will in fact surpass that,” said Kovac.
“For us, this means that we have to get the most out of the phases of possession that we get. If we are not in possession, we must defend well.
“But we also have good players, good speeds that we can use to hurt our opponents.”
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