Dortmund look to Haaland to help reboot German title bid
BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund must tighten their defence and trust teenage striker Erling Braut Haaland to provide the goals at Bundesliga giant-killers Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday after a “week to forget”.
Dortmund conceded two goals inside 82 seconds late on during last Saturday’s 4-3 defeat at Bayer Leverkusen which left senior club bosses fuming.
After eight goals in his four previous games, it was the first time new signing Haaland, 19, had failed to score for Dortmund.
Former captain Sebastian Kehl said the Leverkusen defeat capped a “week to forget”, four days after being dumped out of the German Cup with a 3-2 loss at Werder Bremen.
“We’re conceding too many goals, which often means we lose the reward for our work as we’re scoring enough,” said sporting director Michael Zorc.
The league and cup disappointments leave third-placed Dortmund lagging four points behind leaders Bayern Munich.
It will be no easy task to reboot their title challenge at Frankfurt, while they also have Tuesday’s Champions League last-16 first leg against Paris Saint-germain looming on the horizon.
Bayern suffered a humiliating 5-1 defeat in Frankfurt last November, and second-placed RB Leipzig went down 2-0 at the Commerzbank Arena in January.
Dortmund coach Lucien Favre has been correcting defensive flaws in training after neither Manuel Akanji nor centre-back partner Mats Hummels covered themselves in glory in Leverkusen.
“It takes time to correct a few things, but it’s coming,” said Favre, who comes under more pressure with each defeat.
“I don’t see any other solution apart from work, work, work.” In the four Bundesliga games since the winter break, Dortmund have scored 18 goals but conceded eight.
January signing Emre Can urged his teammates to “play dirty -- a foul here, defend better there”.
Eintracht welcome back Dutch striker Bas Dost after a stomach bug kept him sidelined for last weekend’s 5-0 thumping of Augsburg.
Bayern could be without captain and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer at Cologne on Sunday as the Germany skipper has a virus, with reserve keeper Sven Ulreich on stand-by.