Priority for Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund have progressed to the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time since the 2016-17 season, and it’s fair to say that none of the remaining teams will want to face the German outfit in the next knockout phase.
They may not be the most fancied side in the odds on the UEFA Champions League. However, their attacking prowess is a struggle to contain for any back four. Erling Håland has already notched 10 goals this campaign and is continuously proving difficult to keep at bay, whilst the likes of Jadon Sancho, Thorgan Hazard, Giovanni Reyna and so on make the side a defender’s worst nightmare.
However, whilst Dortmund have enjoyed success in the Champions League this season, the same can’t be said for their Bundesliga campaign. BVB should be competing at the top of the table alongside their Klassiker rivals Bayern Munich and new kids on the block RB Leipzig. But instead they are a dire fifth in the league.
Top four is crucial for Dortmund if they want to keep their star players. Rumours of the likes of Sancho and Håland leaving the club are never far from the headlines and a place in next year’s Champions League will be crucial if BVB want their best assets to remain in their famous yellow and black colours next season.
Dortmund’s hopes of finishing in the Bundesliga’s Champions League spots, which is the top four positions, are far from shattered. With Eintracht Frankfurt picking up just two points from their last two games, BVB closed in to within two points of Die Adler with a win over the struggling Hertha Berlin. So, by no means is it guaranteed that Dortmund will miss out on a place amongst Europe’s elite next season.
However, it seems that the club’s sporting director Michael Zorc, who played for Dortmund almost 600 times across a 17-year spell, wants Edin Terzić and his players to turn their attentions to the league as opposed to getting further in the Champions League.
Speaking about Håland and the club’s ambitions with German publication Welt am Sonntag, Zorc said that Dortmund’s priority needs to be booking a place in next season’s Champions League, as opposed to the Europa League.
“I have never seen someone like him [Håland]. We can search Europe-wide,” the 58- year-old, who won the Champions League with Dortmund in 1997, said. “If he ever left us somewhere, there would only be a handful of clubs, but we’ll try to keep him as long as possible for sporting reasons.
”We don’t want to play in the Europa League on Thursdays. We want to give our calling card in the Champions League.”
It’s understandable that Zorc wants to ensure that Dortmund are playing in Europe’s elite competition next season, and whilst winning the trophy this year would guarantee a spot for BVB in next year’s Champions League, finishing in the top four is a much more likely scenario for the side.
If they want to keep Håland, Sancho and their other star players for as long as possible, then playing in the Champions League is a must. These sorts of players won’t settle for anything less in the modern game.
Not only would Europa League football next season arguably guarantee their departures from the club this summer, but Dortmund could also have to sell them below their asking prices due to the major differences in competition prize money and so on. It really would be a lose-lose situation for the club.