Dortmund face Atletico test of maturity
BORUSSIA DORTMUND take an unbeaten season record into tomorrow’s (12.55am Malaysian time) Champions League date with Atletico Madrid which is seen as their first big test of the campaign.
New coach Lucien Favre has so far worked wonders with his young side, topping the Bundesliga, and Champions League Group A together with Atleti on a maximum six each.
But wins including a 7-0 demolition of Nuremberg and a 4-0 in Stuttgart on Saturday will mean nothing tomorrow against the shrewd tactician Diego Simeone and his team which reached the Champions League final in 2014 and 2016.
“We’re ready for Atletico Madrid. They’re very strong defensively and line up in a compact 4-4-2 formation. But we’ll need to be patient. That’ll be a test of our maturity and where we’re at, but I believe in us,” Germany attacking player Marco Reus (caricature) said.
Fellow forward Maximilian Philipp said that “we are all really excited” but added: “Atletico have a super team. They’ve consistently competed at the top, both nationally and internationally, in recent seasons. It’ll be a tricky test.”
Dortmund’s highpowered attack with the likes of Reus, league top scorer Paco Alcacer and English teenage sensation Jadon Sancho has scored 31 goals in eight Bundesliga matches and the two wins over Brugge and Monaco in Europe, more than double Atletico’s 15.
“We have big ambitions,” the new England international Sancho said, and the former Moenchengladbach and Nice coach Favre also had plenty of praise for the attack. “We have young players on the flanks. They’re strong in one-on-one situations, they have big ambitions and they can link the play very well. But we need to continue to work hard,” Favre said. But just as important is that Dortmund have conceded only eight goals in 10 matches which is just one more than Atleti with their famed back line. It shows that Favre has managed to restore stability which the team badly lacked last year when they went out in the Champions League group stage and finish fourth in the league. Holding midfielders Axel Witsel and Thomas Delaney have improved the balance between Dortmund’s attack and their defence “We know that it’ll be difficult. But we absolutely want to win,” Delaney said. – dpa