Niko Kovac ahead of Barcelona fixture: “We want to show a different face and win the game” | OneFootball

On Tuesday night, Borussia Dortmund will face Barcelona at Signal Iduna Park for the Champions League quarter-final second leg as the hosts look to recover their 4-0 deficit from the first leg.

Dortmund completed their final training session before the match this morning, with Emre Can not taking part as well as the injured Nico Schlotterbeck and Marcel Sabitzer.

The captain stayed inside and trained individually as he had been given the session off due to him struggling with muscular problems in the adductor area for the past few weeks.

“Emre has played through gritted teeth time and again, and that is something that needs to be highlighted,” said manager, Niko Kovac.

Schlotterbeck was at the training ground on Monday and spent a few minutes with his teammates at the end of the training.

Midfielder Felix Nmecha talked about the impact of the defender and gave his thoughts about the test against the La Liga leaders.

“We know he’s always behind us and he’s pushing us. We feel his support and, of course, that of Marcel Sabitzer.

“We know it won’t be easy, but with our fans, anything is possible. We must have faith. We want to win the game and so we have to throw ourselves into it.

Kovac additionally had his say on the upcoming match:

“We know the situation and that we didn’t play well in the first leg.

“Tomorrow, of course, we want to show a completely different face and win the game. But we also know that Barcelona have not lost a competitive game this year. That doesn’t make things easy.

“We want to be on it from the very first minute. We also have to do that because we are facing Barcelona.”

Despite the deficit in the Champions League, Kovac was happy with his side’s performances in the Bundesliga in recent weeks, including a 2-2 draw with the league leaders Bayern Munich last week.

“We defended consistently in Munich and had some very good footballing moments in the second half.

We can see that we can keep up and I believe that the team are now in a good flow in the Bundesliga. We want to win tomorrow, that is our goal.”

GGFN | Matthew Gritton