“The last thing you want to hear after losing a cup tie is congratulations on your performance,” said Jürgen Klopp to fellow coach Horst Steffen after the cup game against Stuttgarter Kickers – but the Dortmund boss still felt the need to congratulate him after all.

Klopp said: “I’m impressed by the stability of Kickers, and I was right to warn my team. I take off my hat to Stuttgart today. They put in an outstanding performance and caused us a lot of problems. I may be a coach, but above all I’m a football fan. They played courageous, with purpose and tactically well. They hurt us. But we were prepared to work hard and we had to work hard. We are pleased with the result, and we knew what we had to do to reach the next round.”

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Horst Steffen said: “There were stages where Dortmund were clearly dominating. We didn’t collapse after the second goal but came back and gave our all. I’m a bit sad about the result.”