It was not the kind of comeback Ilkay Gündogan would have wanted in front of his home crowd. Even if his team dominated the game for long stages and Gündogan kept them pushing forward, BVB slumped to a defeat against Hannover.

Football players are superstitious people. For some, the first step onto the pitch is always with the same foot, others have similar rituals. The team decided to play in the same shirts from the Champions League win in Istanbul. It still didn’t help…

No, it didn’t help. We have ended up empty-handed again and are disappointed.

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From the 10th minute up until Hannover’s goal, BVB created a hatful of chances. Is there any way you can explain the result of the game?

Hannover attacked early, but we were still dominant until they scored. We were denied by the post, the crossbar and Zieler. Had one of them gone in, the game would have had a different outcome.

You were involved in the game’s decisive moment. Be honest, was it a foul on Bittencourt that led to the free-kick from which Kiyotake scored?

I haven’t seen the situation on TV yet and I can only tell how I experienced it: I hit the ball first and then also somehow his foot, but my foot cannot vanish into thin air, can it? I don’t think it was a foul.

How was the mood in the dressing room after the game?

There’s a word beginning with “s” that probably sums it up best. It was very quiet. We don’t have an easy time at the moment. In the last couple of weeks we have lost games against teams we shouldn’t have. And that hurts, even if the reaction of the fans after the game was amazing! But in the end, it is results that matters most, and we also want to pay the fans back. Only half of the things we do at the moment work out the way we want them to.”

It didn’t work out with the shirts, but those who are a bit superstitious will hope that BVB can replicate the form they showed in the Champions League games played under the lights on the domestic stage as well – after all, the games against St. Pauli, Bayern, Gladbach, Frankfurt, Hoffenheim and Wolfsburg will all kick off at 1730 CET or later…

…and on Sunday the clocks are turned back an hour, meaning it will also be dark by the time of the final whistle for the games that kick off at 1530…