The cancellation of the game in Lotte also changed Borussia Dortmund's training programme. "We have had more time to train and to recover. We have gained extra training time. And we love how the team are training at the moment", said Thomas Tuchel today this Friday.

Borussia Dortmund has gained only borrowed time though, as they will be lacking it in a fortnight before their next home game against FC Ingolstadt. Furthermore, because that game will take place on a Friday, there will only be 72 hours between their DFB Cup game and the Bundesliga match. For this reason also, the manager stressed: "We were ready to play." The fixture will now be played on 14. March.

For now, the team goes into the game against Bayer 04 "fresh and in peak condition", another game which will unquestionably be decided by physical fitness. "Leverkusen play very intensively, and make a lot of attacking runs. This occurs in combination with an energetic, aggressive tackling game. It is necessary to withstand this physical approach and also to find footballing solutions to break them down" suggested the manager as a way to approach the game. Tuchel is refusing to let himself be deceived by his opposition's current position in the table, an opponent that Hans Joachim-Watzke had identified at the beginning of the season as "one of our greatest rivals" in the competition for a Champions League spot: "We must ignore any trends and assume the we will come up against the strongest Bayer Leverkusen there is, a team that is really hard to play against and that aims to command possession in their opponent's half. We must play intensively ourselves and go to the limits of our endurance. Only if we do that do we have a chance of winning."

The manager is able to choose from a complete squad, with the exceptions of Bender, Götze and Rode. "Those who are a little bit behind in the order at the moment are ensuring that we train at a very high level and with much passion", said Tuchel. "We are in good form at the moment and we will make sure to show what marks us out on the pitch again tomorrow."
Boris Rupert

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