This Saturday (18:00 CET) Borussia Dortmund match up against Bayer Leverkusen, their seventh match inside 22 days at the conclusion of the English weeks. The preparation phase for this match has seemed unusually long…

Wolfsburg, Freiburg, Madrid. The last few tests have been tough. “We can glean that we have invested a lot into the past few matches, more than our opponents,” reported Thomas Tuchel. As a result, there was a day off on Thursday – unusual for a week with two matches – “to have a bit of a break and not having to continuously be in the English mode of distracting yourself with things that have nothing to do with football.”

After their get together on Friday morning, the purpose of this break was confirmed in Tuchel’s eyes – “the training was at a very high level and a certain freshness is back.” Now it’s time to mobilise all that strength and sharpen the senses for the away match in Leverkusen. “It’s going to be another difficult test for us at the end of an intense period,” said the Manager as he prepares his team for an aggressive opponent who “frequently win the ball back in the opponent’s half and play with a crazy intensity and a high tempo in all positions, to get in front of goal as quickly as possible.” For their part, that’s what the Black and Yellows foresee. Borussia Dortmund’s Head Coach wants “to see a hungry team and one that is willing to expend all its energy”.

Leverkusen is the seventh match inside 22 days. “We have played the highest intensity possible,” said Tuchel. After Warsaw there’s a match on the cards every three days. “It’s seems like a really long time when you don’t have a match from Tuesday until Saturday evening…”

Boris Rupert