Borussia Dortmund maintained their unbeaten home record against Real Madrid with a draw last night, the sixth match in a row that Real have failed to beat Dortmund on German soil. Substitute André Schürrle earned BVB a 2-2 draw in their second Champions League group game with a left-footed strike with just three minutes of normal time remaining. “It was the perfect end to his injury lay-off,” said BVB head coach Thomas Tuchel. DFB.de spoke to the 25-year-old world champion after the game.
Interviewer: Mr Schürrle, one point against the defending champions, you got the equaliser shortly before the end – in one word, how was it?
André Schürrle: I don’t think one word is enough to be honest. Far too much happened to sum it up in just one word. It was very emotional, especially at the final whistle. When you get the equaliser so near the end against a team like Real Madrid, it is obviously a great feeling. But we are only going to celebrate this victory briefly. In fact we sat in the changing room after the game and talked for quite a while about how we wouldn’t go on and on celebrating the result. We really wanted to win our game at home to Real Madrid but all in all, I think a point is a good result, although we still went behind twice in the game.
Interviewer: Real played with a lot more energy and more aggressively than they had done recently in the Spanish League. Don’t you all deserve more credit for getting a point?
Schürrle: We were up for it. We knew that Madrid had had a few difficulties in their last couple of games and were struggling a little bit. But everybody knows that when you play in the Champions League in such an amazing stadium against a team as good as them, you have to perform at the highest level. These matches are different. You could see that each Real player gave more than they had done recently. And when Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Gale and Karim Benzema get going, it’s very difficult to defend against them. Obviously we’ve conceded two goals, but we still played well .Phew!
Interviewer: That must have been the perfect comeback for you, right?
Schürrle: It’s certainly a great feeling to come back and help the team in this way. We more than deserved to get the point.
Interviewer: You seemed to be having some problems after sprinting just before. You were limping a bit. What happened?
Schürrle: I still have some problems with the old knee injury. I took a knock during the match. We’re going to have a closer look at it. I was in pain but we couldn’t make any more substitutions so I just had to carry on. But I was rewarded for that.
Interviewer: Borussia were dominating in the first half but Real Madrid dealt with the threat well. What did you think of the overall performance of the team?
Schürrle: We were bold and composed, that was important. We were very good on the ball and we worked hard off the ball to win it back. We were psyched up and only misplaced one or two passes. But we played good football and made an impression on Real Madrid, a team of great quality. That was our goal. It was good to see Julian Weigl deal so well with the likes of Karim Benzema and James Rodriguez. Our young players need this kind of experience in particular so that they can improve.
Interviewer: André, your next big match is on Saturday evening, this time against Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga. How are you going to prepare for this?
Schürrle: First of all we all need some time to recover before we get going again. It’s a different match in a different competition. The decisive factor will be who can use their possession most effectively in order to make the right pass at the right moment. We have managed to do this well recently, even against Real Madrid. We have to simply work on our game plan.
[mmc/sz/ej]
Borussia Dortmund maintained their unbeaten home record against Real Madrid with a draw last night, the sixth match in a row that Real have failed to beat Dortmund on German soil. Substitute André Schürrle earned BVB a 2-2 draw in their second Champions League group game with a left-footed strike with just three minutes of normal time remaining. “It was the perfect end to his injury lay-off,” said BVB head coach Thomas Tuchel. DFB.de spoke to the 25-year-old world champion after the game.
Interviewer: Mr Schürrle, one point against the defending champions, you got the equaliser shortly before the end – in one word, how was it?
André Schürrle: I don’t think one word is enough to be honest. Far too much happened to sum it up in just one word. It was very emotional, especially at the final whistle. When you get the equaliser so near the end against a team like Real Madrid, it is obviously a great feeling. But we are only going to celebrate this victory briefly. In fact we sat in the changing room after the game and talked for quite a while about how we wouldn’t go on and on celebrating the result. We really wanted to win our game at home to Real Madrid but all in all, I think a point is a good result, although we still went behind twice in the game.
Interviewer: Real played with a lot more energy and more aggressively than they had done recently in the Spanish League. Don’t you all deserve more credit for getting a point?
Schürrle: We were up for it. We knew that Madrid had had a few difficulties in their last couple of games and were struggling a little bit. But everybody knows that when you play in the Champions League in such an amazing stadium against a team as good as them, you have to perform at the highest level. These matches are different. You could see that each Real player gave more than they had done recently. And when Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Gale and Karim Benzema get going, it’s very difficult to defend against them. Obviously we’ve conceded two goals, but we still played well .Phew!
Interviewer: That must have been the perfect comeback for you, right?
Schürrle: It’s certainly a great feeling to come back and help the team in this way. We more than deserved to get the point.
Interviewer: You seemed to be having some problems after sprinting just before. You were limping a bit. What happened?
Schürrle: I still have some problems with the old knee injury. I took a knock during the match. We’re going to have a closer look at it. I was in pain but we couldn’t make any more substitutions so I just had to carry on. But I was rewarded for that.
Interviewer: Borussia were dominating in the first half but Real Madrid dealt with the threat well. What did you think of the overall performance of the team?
Schürrle: We were bold and composed, that was important. We were very good on the ball and we worked hard off the ball to win it back. We were psyched up and only misplaced one or two passes. But we played good football and made an impression on Real Madrid, a team of great quality. That was our goal. It was good to see Julian Weigl deal so well with the likes of Karim Benzema and James Rodriguez. Our young players need this kind of experience in particular so that they can improve.
Interviewer: André, your next big match is on Saturday evening, this time against Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga. How are you going to prepare for this?
Schürrle: First of all we all need some time to recover before we get going again. It’s a different match in a different competition. The decisive factor will be who can use their possession most effectively in order to make the right pass at the right moment. We have managed to do this well recently, even against Real Madrid. We have to simply work on our game plan.
