Füllkrug reacts to Leverkusen draw: “We were the better team and deserved to win”

Niclas Füllkrug believes Borussia Dortmund should have beaten Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday.

Borussia Dortmund came painfully close to becoming the first team to beat Bayer Leverkusen this season on Sunday, but had to settle for a 1-1 draw after Josip Stanisic levelled from a corner in stoppage time.

Niclas Füllkrug, who put Borussia Dortmund 1-0 up, was visibly disappointed with the result and said he thought BVB deserved to win.

“We were the better team today and deserved to win. We scored the goal for 1-0 in a good phase. Now it of course feels lousy when you let in a goal so late, especially as it was easy to prevent. We’d given away little up until that point,” Füllkrug said. 

“The fact we gifted them a free-kick like that leaves me a bit speechless. Even after that the corner can still be cleared, but unfortunately that didn’t happen either. The ball has to be cleared there, everyone has to stick to their man. 

“It’s just bitter we didn’t win the game. It was brilliant how Sabi set up a goal for me again, in front of the South Stand again, but now my disappointment outweighs my happiness about the goal.”

Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzic said he felt neither team performed at their best.

“It was a match with very few goalscoring chances, and it was not a good game from both teams. We were far too passive and had far too little tempo in our play. If one is leading so close to the end, it feels as though we were closer but in terms of the performance it was not what we had envisaged,” said Terzic. 

“We gave away a free-kick, even though we had already cleared the situation. The free-kick resulted in two corner-kicks. The last one was difficult to defend, but we absolutely shouldn’t have gotten into the situation. It was the third goal we have conceded from a set-piece in a week.”