“We thought it would work itself out today”

BVB sports director Sebastian Kehl reacted “angry” to second-placed Borussia Dortmund’s 2-2 win in the 100th district derby at FC Schalke 04.

The fact that Borussia, despite being in the lead twice, did not win the game against the new table penultimate and thus also had to let FC Bayern Munich, who had equal points up to the beginning of the 24th matchday and had previously won their game against FC Augsburg 5:3, pull away in the Table, “totally disappointed” Kehl.

“In the second half, due to the dominance and game control up to that point, we perhaps thought that it would work itself out today and that we no longer needed to concentrate so much at one point or another,” said Kehl after the end of the mixed game Zone of the Veltins Arena. It was “lacking the clarity, the focus, to decide this game clearly for us”.

Schalke had equalized Nico Schlotterbeck’s opening goal in the 38th minute with a goal from Marius Blumer in the 50th minute. The clearly dominating BVB had taken the lead again through Raphael Guerreiro (60th), but Kenan Karaman had managed to equalize again with a first goal for Schalke.

“We ran more, had more possession of the ball, won more duels than Schalke. All the data speaks for us. I didn’t see any physical weakness either, those were different topics today,” said Kehl and, of course, threw the one at BVB without clearly naming them well-known mentality elephants in the room.

BVB, Sebastian Kehl: “Gave away two points”

“We are disappointed today, we lost two points, it hurts today, I’m really angry and I felt that in the team,” said Kehl, who nevertheless emphasized that BVB has won eight of the last nine Bundesliga games and unbeaten since the winter break. “We gave away two points, otherwise we’re on the right track. I hope these two points don’t hurt us completely in the end,” said Kehl.

BVB: Table after the Saturday games of the 24th matchday