Reus won’t go down without a fight
BORUSSIA DORTMUND are going into their Champions League Round-of-16 second leg at home against Tottenham Hotspur tonight with a clear disadvantage after a 3-0 first-leg loss but the Germans will attempt a major upset, said captain Marco Reus.
Bundesliga leaders Dortmund have managed just one win in their last five league games, while also losing to Tottenham in London and being eliminated by Werder Bremen in the German Cup.
Reus, injured in the game against Werder in early February, returned on Friday but could do nothing to avert their second league loss of the season, 2-1 at Augsburg.
Yesterday, he sounded confident that his team could still turn things around if they hit top form on the night.
“I think this stadium (in Dortmund) has seen its share of games where history was written,” Reus told a news conference. “We can also do it. But we need a top performance and to score the goals at the right time. I think we are in a position to achieve the impossible.”
Dortmund still have the best attack in the Bundesliga but in recent weeks they have struggled to score while also conceding goals through individual errors.
Their seven-point gap a few weeks ago has now shrunk to a slim goal difference ahead of Bayern Munich while their lacklustre first-leg performance against Tottenham also raised alarm bells.
“We know in the past weeks we have gifted away points because we made too many mistakes,” Reus said. “We have to remain positive and keep working.
“We have to have a stronger mentality, like we had in the previous months. We will emerge from this.”
Real Madrid’s forwards have failed to fill the gap left by Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric said yesterday.
The Croatian, speaking ahead of Real’s clash with Ajax tonight, said his team lacked consistency and goals this season.
Madrid failed to score in two Clasicos against Barcelona last week, being eliminated from the Copa del Rey and
lfalling 12 points behind the Catalan league leaders, leaving retaining the Champions League as their only hope of glory.
Ronaldo, the European champions’ all-time top scorer, left in July to join Juventus and Madrid signed young attackers Vinicius Junior and Mariano Diaz but no big-name forward to replace the Portuguese.
“The absence of Cristiano is something every team would feel; to find a replacement for Cristiano is almost impossible,” Modric told reporters.
“Given what he did for us and this club, we miss Cristiano.
"The club wanted the other players to make up for what he did, divided between the strikers and that is not easy." |