Niko Kovac opens up on the game of two halves in the Paderborn win

Borussia Dortmund manager Niko Kovac hailed his team for enduring through a tough game against Paderborn just days after a challenging UEFA Champions League fixture.

The BVB prevailed 3-0 on Saturday to continue their winning start to the 2026-27 Bundesliga season, just four days after their hard-fought 3-2 win over Villarreal in Europe.

The Prussians were off to a good start, with Serhou Guirassy sending Fabio Silva on with a vertical pass for the Portuguese to break before finishing it clinically for 1-0 after just five minutes.

However, they struggled there on, and needed a late brace from substitute Felix Nmecha, who scored in the 80th and 89th minute, to fully have the contest in the bag.

Reflecting on their early lead, Kovac told press after the game:

We got off to a good start with the early goal. Obviously, hat helps — especially after playing in a very hard-fought and difficult UEFA Champions League match on Tuesday.

Spurned on by the deficit, Paderborn put up a tough challenge for Dortmund and came close to scoring a few times. With more clinical finishing, they might as well have bagged a goal or two before half-time.

But the BVB looked more dominant after the break, controling the ball (and the proceedings) whilst also creating a few good chances. Guirassy, unperturbed by two disallowed goals in the first half, continued to have a go at the Paderborn goal but was denied multiple times by goalkeeper Nahuel Noll.

Kovac further stated:

It wasn’t easy for the team because Paderborn also played really well, but we didn’t allow anything. In the second half, the game opened up a bit, partly because the opponent’s energy started to wane.

Nmecha then scored a late double, first a brilliant shot off Maximilian Beier's pass and then a sensational bicycle kick from Marcel Sabitzer's cross, to consolidate BVB's grip on the match.

Kovac felt Dortmund could have easily scored more goals and won by a bigger margin:

We had enough good chances to score more goals I was pleased with the team’s performance over the full 90 minutes. You can’t expect to dominate and put the game out of reach in the first half.

With the defeat of Paderborn, Dortmund extended their winning run in all competitions to five games, including three in three league matches.

They next play away to Stuttgart on Saturday in the last game before the first international break of the season.