Dortmund needs quick recovery to keep Bundesliga exciting

BERLIN: After hitting their first bumps of 2023, Borussia Dortmund need to recover quickly to keep the Bundesliga title race exciting before facing Bayern Munich. Schalke ended Dortmund’s perfect league record since the turn of the year with a 2-2 draw on Saturday. They came after the club were knocked out of the Champions League by Chelsea the previous Tuesday — a 2-0 loss in the second leg that ended Dortmund’s 10-game winning run since the winter break.

There’s concern now that tiredness and injuries are taking their toll just when the season enters its decisive phase. Ten matches in the Bundesliga remain. Dortmund next hosts Cologne on Saturday before visiting Bayern for “der Klassiker” on April 1.

Worries about the form of forward Sébastien Haller are not helping. Haller had been expected to help fill the gap left by Erling Haaland’s departure for Manchester City, but the Ivory Coast striker has scored only one goal in 12 appearances in all competitions since returning in January after six months out for testicular cancer treatment. “I’m not as forgetful as one or two journalists or the media,” Dortmund coach Edin Terzić said Thursday.

“I said at the time in Bad Ragaz (Switzerland), when we found out about this serious illness, that there would be turmoil and dismay in the next days. And that as soon as there was a game, that it would all be forgotten. Then it’s all about the No.

9 from Borussia Dortmund.” Terzić said he remembered saying in January before Haller’s return that it was the best thing this year that the forward was back with the team. “And I’m sticking to that. It’s an unbelievably great feeling to have Sébastien back on the field with us every day,” Terzić said.