Roman Bürki was Borussia Dortmund’s hero in the last 16 of the DFB Cup. The Swiss national goalkeeper saved Vladimir Darida’s penalty to help his side reach the next round. His International teammate Fabian Lustenberger and Salomon Kalou were unable to trouble the man between the posts as both failed to hit the target with the spot kicks for Hertha.
After the quarter-final draw, where Dortmund will now play Sportfreunde Lotte, DFB spoke to the jubilant goalkeeper to get his insight on the match.
Question: Hello Mr Penalty-hero. How does that sound?
Roman Bürki: (laughing) No no that is not me, If I had stopped all the others, then you could call me that.
Q: You made a brilliant stop to deny Vladimir Darida, but Sami Allagui’s effort spun back into the net, what happened there?
Bürki: I threw everything into diving towards the corner. The shot wasn’t placed very well so I turned my hands over and that’s how the ball ended up rolling back into the net. It was unlucky, but it didn’t make a difference in the end.
Q: Goalkeeping coach Teddy de Beer gave you a slip of paper before the penalty shoot out. Did that help?
Bürki: No genuinely not. He just wanted to tell me that most of the players we expected to take a penalty and had prepared for were no longer on the pitch. I remember from playing with Darida in Freiburg that he prefers the left hand side and luckily that was the case this time as well.
Roman Bürki was Borussia Dortmund’s hero in the last 16 of the DFB Cup. The Swiss national goalkeeper saved Vladimir Darida’s penalty to help his side reach the next round. His International teammate Fabian Lustenberger and Salomon Kalou were unable to trouble the man between the posts as both failed to hit the target with the spot kicks for Hertha.
After the quarter-final draw, where Dortmund will now play Sportfreunde Lotte, DFB spoke to the jubilant goalkeeper to get his insight on the match.
Question: Hello Mr Penalty-hero. How does that sound?
Roman Bürki: (laughing) No no that is not me, If I had stopped all the others, then you could call me that.
Q: You made a brilliant stop to deny Vladimir Darida, but Sami Allagui’s effort spun back into the net, what happened there?
Bürki: I threw everything into diving towards the corner. The shot wasn’t placed very well so I turned my hands over and that’s how the ball ended up rolling back into the net. It was unlucky, but it didn’t make a difference in the end.
Q: Goalkeeping coach Teddy de Beer gave you a slip of paper before the penalty shoot out. Did that help?
Bürki: No genuinely not. He just wanted to tell me that most of the players we expected to take a penalty and had prepared for were no longer on the pitch. I remember from playing with Darida in Freiburg that he prefers the left hand side and luckily that was the case this time as well.
Q: How did you see the game as a whole?
Bürki: We created a lot of chances and could and perhaps should have taken the lead. Going behind was obviously hard to take. We had made the all the running but they had taken their chance. Luckily we came back, fought hard and even if we were a man down, we deserved to win the game.
Q: How many grey hairs do you gain when you see your teammates miss so many good chances?
Bürki: It’s difficult. But those times when it’s harder to scorer are part of football. It has always been like that and that is not going to change.
Q: How hard was it, after 120 relatively quiet minutes, to have to spring into action in the penalty shoot out? It wasn’t exactly warm in the stadium.
Bürki: Straight before the shootout I went inside and warmed up - I actually went to the toilet - and then everything was good from there.
Q: How much have the wins against Leipzig and Hertha helped to bring back the old consistency?
Bürki: Both victories were very important, but now we need to keep that trend going in the next few games. That is vital.
Q: The up and downs of the past few weeks also occurred during last night’s game. Dortmund start quickly but then seem to fade?
Bürki: That was really because Berlin did absolutely everything to interrupt our rhythm. They looked to waste time even after ten minutes and at every opportunity they could, so much so that the referee had to warn them. We are definitely a team that prefers a fast paced tempo to the game.
Q: To a degree it could be the same story against Darmstadt on Saturday. How do you see that trip planning out?
Bürki: We are definitely going to have to fight hard. Hopefully Ousmane Dembélé isn’t too badly injured and we’ll be able to go there and do our thing.
Q: What is your overall opinion of Dembélé? He had to leave the field because of cramp but notonly did he come back he also put away a penalty.
Bürki: Sensational. Ous is always lively. He knows what to do with the ball very quickly after receiving it and if f he continues to do that, very little will be able to stop him.
Q: A quick word on the red card for Sokratis?
Bürki: No idea, maybe he just didn’t want to take a penalty! (laughs)
