Germany international Kevin Grosskreutz insists Borussia Dortmund can bounce back from their Bundesliga nightmare — starting with today’s clash at league leaders Bayern Munich.
“We will show again what we can do and we want to start in Munich,” Grosskreutz said.
Bayern host Dortmund with the teams having shared the past four league titles between them, but Borussia have been rocked by four straight league defeats — their worst sequence of Bundesliga results in 15 years.
Just two wins in their opening nine league games leaves last season’s runners-up languishing in 15th place in the table, a staggering 14 points behind league leaders Bayern, but Dortmund have won three of their past four league matches at Bayern and Munich captain Philipp Lahm insists Jurgen Klopp’s side are still a “threat.”
To up the ante, Dortmund will have the worst start to a Bundesliga season in the club’s history confirmed by a fifth consecutive defeat today.
Bayern hope to include Dutch winger Arjen Robben after he missed the past two matches with a leg injury, while Dortmund are set to name Japanese midfielder Shinji Kagawa, who has a 100 percent record in his four matches against Munich.
Dortmund-Bayern clashes have been dubbed Germany’s Klassiker in recent years, but Borussia coach Klopp is currently in the biggest crisis of his six-year reign.
He has refused to make any bold declarations ahead of the Munich clash, even though Dortmund trounced last season’s champions 3-0 on their last visit to the Bavarian capital in April, when Pep Guardiola’s side had already won the title.
“We’re not entitled to anything at the moment, but we will try everything,” Klopp said.
There is bad blood between Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Dortmund, with the Bavarian giants reported to be interested in signing Dortmund’s Germany winger Marco Reus.
Bayern have signed both World Cup winner Mario Goetze and Poland striker Robert Lewandowski from Dortmund in the past two seasons, and Rummenigge has said he is fully aware Reus has a release clause in his contract.
“He could have just said nothing, but that is not his personal style, and so he just goes on and on,” Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke said.
Borussia Moenchengladbach, in second, host TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, who are fourth, tomorrow in a meeting between two of the league’s three remaining unbeaten teams.
’Gladbach can match their 17-game unbeaten record from 1970-1971 by avoiding defeat, while Hoffenheim are reaping the reward for rebuilding their squad over the summer and are proving to be a hard team to break down.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
Taiwanese e-sports veteran Lin “ET” Chia-hung yesterday successfully defended his King of Fighters XV title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan), securing his second consecutive championship. Lin claimed victory with a 3-1 win over Japanese pro gamer “mok” in the grand final, repeating his earlier 3-1 win against the same opponent in the winners’ final. The 40-year-old earned a ￥1 million (US$6,897) cash prize at the two-day tournament, which drew 294 competitors. Mok, Lin’s toughest rival in the bracket, took home ￥400,000 as runner-up. Lin remains undefeated in match sets against mok in King of Fighters XV, holding a 10-0 record,
Batting great Virat Kohli yesterday announced his immediate retirement from Test cricket, just days before India name their squad for a tour to England. Kohli, who scored 9,230 runs in 123 matches at an average of 46.85, posted his decision on Instagram five days after India captain Rohit Sharma called time on his own Test career. Since making his debut in 2011, Kohli struck 30 hundreds and 31 fifties with a highest score of 254 not out, mainly batting at number four in the order. “It’s been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket,” the
RSS