Dortmund’s Favre defiant ahead of tough Freiburg trip

BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund coach Lucien Favre hit back on Thursday at critics on his team, who will look to keep pace in a tight Bundesliga title race in their tricky test at Freiburg this weekend.

Dortmund remain just a point behind league leaders Bayern Munich with five games to go, but faced widespread criticism after their nervy 2-1 home win over Mainz last weekend, in which Favre’s side had to withstand a second half onslaught from the away to hold onto the three points.

The game also sparked some soul-searching within the Dortmund ranks, with captain Marco Reus saying that the team would have to play “beyond their limits” if they were to win the title.

“Everyone is saying we were bad in the second half, but that is an exaggeration,” an animated Favre told reporters on Thursday.

“We had three clear chances in the second half, and we only played badly in the last ten minutes.”

Title hopefuls Dortmund face Freiburg tomorrow, in the first of several potential banana skins between now and the end of the season.

Freiburg are a notoriously hard team to visit, and have already had an impact on the title race by holding Bayern to a draw at home earlier this month.

Dortmund’s defence remains ravaged by injury ahead of Sunday’s match. Full-backs Lukasz Piszczek and Achraf Hakimi are still sidelined, while Favre confirmed on Thursday that centreback Dan-Axel Zagadou has picked up a knock to his knee.

With rivals Bayern playing today, a day before, Dortmund will know before kick-off tomorrow whether they have the chance to regain top spot.

Bremen are in good shape: they remain unbeaten in 2019, in a run stretching back 14 games in all competitions and are sniffing around the European places.

FIXTURES — Today: Bayern Munich v Werder Bremen (9.30pm), Bayer Leverkusen v Nürnberg (9.30pm), Augsburg v Stuttgart (9.30pm), Mainz v Fortuna Düsseldorf (9.30pm), Borussia M’gladbach v Leipzig (Tomorrow, 12.30am), Schalke v Hoffenheim (Tomorrow, 2.30am);

Tomorrow: Freiburg v Borussia Dortmund (9.30pm), Hertha BSC v Hannover 96 (Monday, 12am). AFP