Michael Zorc praises Thomas Delaney for “outstanding performance” after Leverkusen win | OneFootball

Borussia Dortmund shellacked Bayer Leverkusen 4-0 on Saturday. Sporting director Michael Zorc was happy with his team’s performance and singled out one player in particular.

“In the first 10, 15 minutes you could see that we struggled with our own possession,” the 57-year-old told Ruhr Nachrichten after the game, adding: “We had a lot of miscues and easy giveaways. But then we fought ourselves into the game. We should’ve led by at least two goals in the first half. Three could have been possible.

“Bayer had more of the ball, as was to be expected. But we managed to keep them out of the dangerous zones for most of the 90 minutes. We didn’t give away a lot of opportunities because we defended well. The entire defence played well.”

The hosts only saw 36% of the ball during the 90 minutes but that didn’t matter in the end because BVB hit the visitors on the counter-attack. Favre’s ploy to nullify Leverkusen midfielder Kai Havertz by fielding Thomas Delaney in the double-pivot worked out perfectly.

The stellar effort by the Dane did not go unnoticed by the sporting director: “I have to give special praise to Thomas Delaney, who led like 200 tackles and won 210 of them, to exaggerate a bit. It was an outstanding performance.”

For Dortmund, it was the first clean sheet in the Bundesliga after four matchdays. “I hope the clean sheet against a good attack lends the team more stability and consistency,” Zorc said, alluding to his team’s lacklustre performances in previous games.

Zorc explained: “We didn’t discover that we have to fight in games just in 2019. The team didn’t fully understand it in Berlin but today they showed it.”

BVB suffered their first loss before the international break, losing 3-1 to Union Berlin. Saturday’s win propelled Dortmund back into second place as RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich shared the spoils in the night game while VfL Wolfsburg dropped points already away to Düsseldorf on Friday night.

“Overall, you can say that we needed a result today. There was pressure to score the points today,” Zorc admitted.

The 4-0 win was a good litmus test for the Black and Yellows ahead of Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League tie against FC Barcelona. Dortmund are looking forward to hosting the Catalan side at the Westfalenstadion.

“Indeed, Barcelona, like Leverkusen, like to have the ball. But so do we. Furthermore, we also have other weapons. For example our counterattack,” Zorc explained: “The UEFA Champions League is a different competition. I’m looking forward to competing against one of the best teams in the world. We didn’t play against them since the end of the 90s, as far as I know. It’ll be a football fest — which we obviously want to win.”