Nico Schlotterbeck hails Borussia Dortmund's stoic defensive plays in recent games
Borussia Dortmund star Nico Schlotterbeck reveled in his side's growing number of shutouts in the Bundesliga this season.
The BVB registered their fifth clean sheet of the league season after beating Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 on Saturday, weathering the early storm from their visitors.
Jonathan Burkardt fired narrowly wide while Younes Ebnoutalib was denied by goalkeeper Gregor Kobel from a few yards out in the first half.
Frankfurt made last roll of the dice in the dying seconds as Lilian Brassier raced into the left channel and sent in a looping cross near the goal-line for anyone in white to head home. But Kobel got his hands to it as Dortmund clinched all three points.
With another clean sheet added to their stat, Schlotterbeck said after the match:
It was a ton of fun. We allowed a few chances in the first half, and then none whatsoever in the second half. We’ve now kept five clean sheets in seven games.
Dortmund could have bagged one against Werder Bremen too, having raced to a 2-0 lead after 85 minutes, but a late collapse allowed the River Islanders to claw their way back into the match and snatched a point right under BVB's noses at the death.
If we had held on for two more minutes against Bremen, we'd be talking about six out of seven. That’s really good. added Schlotterbeck
Besides only quality defending from the home side, Schlotterbeck also praised Beier for his top-drawer strike that made the difference as Frankfurt goalkeeper Noah Atubolu, who had made some excellent saves until then, stood no chance on that one.
The four of us in the back work really well together. We dominated the second half and earned the win through compact defending. Maxi put his quality on display. That shot into the far corner is his specialty. Noah [Atubolu] had been making quality saves up to that point, but he couldn’t stop that one.
With back-to-back wins now, Dortmund are showing signs of returning to form again after the mini-slump, which holds them in good stead of their next two games a DFB-Pokal encounter with Bremen in the second round before a daunting visit to Munich to face Bayern in the Der Klassiker.
We're not perfect yet, but we're making progress as a team. Next week, we’re off to take on Bayern. We want to play a strong game there. Before that, we’re up against Bremen. They’re in good form. I expect a high-intensity affair. The shortest path to silverware is the domestic cup. Schlotterbeck concluded.
