"Chin up, work hard, fight, and keep going"

"It is a special game on Saturday. I hope that will allow us to draw upon untapped reserves of energy to collect the three points and turn the situation around", said Ömer Toprak after the game against Nicosia. For in the top of the table clash on Saturday, there is nothing less than the league-table leadership at stake. A win would see BVB back at its apex, and would immediately allow the team to put the last few lacklustre weeks behind them. "What we need is a win, then their confidence will come flooding back", clarified Bosz. The Dutchman seemed calm despite the team's near certain departure from Europe's elite club competition, radiating the composure that his team requires for this "rough patch", as Marcel Schmelzer described it. 

"It could be the right moment"

"We are all in it together, but we will emerge from it together. You saw at the beginning of the season what we are capable of", said Bosz, who still fully believes in his team. "We have good players, you could see that against Nicosia too. When they get their self-confidence back, then we will be back on the right path." Maybe championship record holders Bayern are actually the right opposition for the moment, since what can give a team more confidence than a win over the record holders and their fierce rivals of the last two decades?

Bosz also suggested that "the game against Bayern might be coming at the right moment. At the beginning of the season when we were playing well and were collecting lots of points, many people had high expectations of us as a consequence. Maybe their expectations of what we can do in the game on Saturday are now not so high. That's why it could be the right moment", said the BVB manager.

The Bavarians can be beaten

That extra bit of motivation that a match against the championship record holders can provide could be the decisive factor in deciding the outcome of that game, given the encounters against Bayern have been tight affairs in the last few years. The last such game was the Supercup match in Dortmund to usher in the new season, in which BVB only lost on penalties. Prior to that, Dortmund won the DFB Cup semi-final 3-2 in Munich, and the last home game in the league almost exactly one year ago in November of 2016 was likewise won by the Borussia men, 1-0.

Peter Bosz will remind his team of these successes in the coming two days. "It is my job to give these players their confidence back. A win is the best medicine", he clarified. "That is exactly what I told them in the dressing room after the game against Nicosia. Chin up, work hard, fight, and keep going. That is exactly what we have to do." Things can change quickly in football. Borussia Dortmund still led the table with a five point advantage just two weeks ago. Now they are in second place, three points behind the leaders. "It all happened quickly, we know that", said Peter Bosz. "But things could turn around very quickly once more." A BVB win on Saturday, for example, would represent such a turnaround. Other teams have already proven this season that FCB can be beaten...
Dennis-Julian Gottschlich