bundesliga

Borussia Dortmund’s Roman Bürki: “I still believe we can be champions”

28.04.2019

Despite suffering a crushing 4-2 defeat to Schalke in the Revierderby on Matchday 31, Dortmund’s No.1 believes there is still a long way to go in the title race between BVB and Bayern Munich.

“I still believe that we can become champions,” Bürki told bundesliga.com after Saturday’s loss at the Signal Iduna Park. “There are still a few games to play. Bayern still have two difficult games against RB Leipzig and Eintracht Frankfurt to come. We have to believe in it until the end.”

Dortmund could still go into the final three games of their season one point behind Bayern, although the defending champions play Nuremberg on Sunday and might also extend the gap at the top to four points in their favour.

What Lucien Favre’s side certainly do know is that they must win all of their remaining games to stand a chance of winning the title. BVB will travel to Bremen next weekend before hosting Fortuna Düssledorf in their final home match of the season, before ending their campaign at Borussia-Park against Mönchengladbach.

Roman Bürki could do nothing to keep out Daniel Caligiuri's incredible free-kick for Schalke. - imago images / VI Images

Dortmund will be without Marco Reus and Marius Wolf for their trip to Bremen, and possibly even the visit of Düsseldorf depending on the length of suspension given to the pair, who were both shown red cards in the defeat to Schalke.

“The goal from the penalty somehow knocked us off balance,” Bürki said of the Schalke game. “But there was still plenty of time to play, it was only 1-1 and we still had all 11 players on the pitch, so I don’t think that the penalty was that crucial.

“In the first half, we didn’t put enough desire and fire into our play. It was better after the break. We believed that we could still pull the game back, even with only nine players. In the end, it wasn’t enough, because we created too few chances to score. With 11 players we would've won this game.”