Post-Match Report
Sahin praises intuition, Gittens and Guirassy
Gittens scored the goals to make it 1-0 and 2-0 courtesy of two lovely pieces of individual play in the 76th and 86th minutes, while Guirassy netted from the spot in stoppage time. The fact that the fouled player stepped up himself was nothing unusual, but captain Emre Can abruptly suspending the penalty taker pecking order was. It was not Can, who has scored eight out of eight spot-kicks for Borussia in the league, but new signing Guirassy who stepped up to take it. "Emre showed the right intuition," praised Sahin, who subsequently paid tribute to the goalscorer. "The way that he slotted it in was really good. That will bring him a step further in terms of self-confidence." For the striker, who has been out injured for weeks, it was his first goal in his second appearances for BVB.
Guirassy rounded off the scoring. Gittens netted to make it 1-0 to Borussia in a phase in which Brugge had the upper hand and were growing increasingly courageous. That made the substitute's goal all the more important. "Every player wants to play from the start. But I can only field 11," said Sahin, addressing the players who had been hoping in vain for a place in the starting line-up. Speaking specifically about Gittens, he said: "Jamie wants to take the next step. We want him to take the next step." The head coach describes the style of play of the striker, who only turned 20 years old a few weeks ago, as "mature" and added: "The fact that he is unbelievable in one-on-ones and has a very good finish is not new to me. If he has now acquired a taste for scoring goals, then he'll be hard to stop. He's very welcome to do that from the beginning." Was Sahin referring to this statistic? Gittens has scored seven of his nine goals in the Bundesliga and Champions League from the bench, including the brace in the league opener against Frankfurt.
What ultimately counts are the three points. "It was important to start off with three points in a game that was sometimes more in our favour, sometimes more in the opposition's, in which we had some problems with our play off the ball and, in the first half, with our defending of counter-attacks," concluded Sahin: "The important thing is that we know why the opponent had these chances. We'll discuss this with the boys and hopefully find better solutions if an opponent plays similarly next time."
A 3-0 victory, the first three points are on the board. The table – in which they occupy third place before the upcoming matches this Thursday – of course does not yet carry any weight. The format sounds exciting. And it certainly brought about a novelty. On the evening before the match, the Black & Yellows sat together for a long time in the dining room and watched the TV monitors. The match between Real Madrid and VfB Stuttgart was on, meaning they could analyse their upcoming opponents in both the Bundesliga and the Champions League at the same time…
Boris Rupert
