Dortmund “on the right path” after Sturm Graz win, says Kehl

Sebastian Kehl believes Borussia Dortmund’s hard-fought 1-0 win over Sturm Graz shows that they’re “on the right path”.

Injury-hit Borussia Dortmund had to fight hard to secure a 1-0 Champions League victory over Sturm Graz on Tuesday thanks to Donyell Malen’s late winner.

It was a positive sign that Dortmund managed to secure the win even though their energy dwindled towards the end of the game, said sporting director Sebastian Kehl after the match.

“We played good football in the first half, kept finding solutions, got ourselves into dangerous positions in the box with long diagonal balls. The only ball I didn’t like was the final ball, against a team from Graz who fought until the last moment and made life very difficult for us, especially in the second half,” Kehl told BVB.de. 

“In the last few weeks we’ve spent a lot of energy, and you could tell that in the last few minutes of the game. The fact that the team still won this game in the end is very well deserved and shows that we’re on the right path.”

BVB coach Nuri Sahin was pleased that his players “kept clear heads and got the job done.”

“We completely controlled the game, apart from one phase between the 60th and 70th minutes. We need to score our first goal earlier, that opens the door. We didn’t manage to do that. Up to the box, we were good and the plan worked out. When you score the goal, the spaces get bigger. In the end, we got our reward,” he told DAZN.