By Holger Schmidt, Thomas Pruefer and Stefan Flomm, dpa
Dusseldorf/Hamburg (dpa) – It is make or break for Borussia Dortmund’s season when they host Holstein Kiel in the German Cup semi-finals and RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga on the next two Saturdays.
Erling Haaland and company are first favoured to reach the May 13 Berlin final over second-tier Kiel who have however eliminated Bayern Munich in the second round.
And beating Leipzig a week later is all but mandatory in their bid to finish in the top four and qualify for the next Champions League, currently being placed fifth.
Leipzig, who play Werder Bremen in the other semi, could be their opponents again another five days later in the May 13 cup final.
“We want both: qualifying and going to Berlin,” Dortmund sports director Michael Zorc insisted on Thursday.
“Things are looking better in the Bundesliga lately but as of now we are not yet qualified.
“And we were in Berlin very often over the past years and always enjoyed it. It would be a big step and it is a big to show in Berlin that we are back. And it it is the chance to win a title.”
Dortmund appeared in five cup finals between 2012 and 2017, winning the first and last of those games for an overall tally of four Cup titles.
“Get to the final and bring a title to Dortmund” is the the clear aim of coach Edin Terzic.
Dortmund appear to have found back some stability lately in an up and down season, winning their last four league matches.
But they are taking nothing for granted against Kiel, with Terzic saying that “not many teams manage to beat Bayern” and not seeing an advantage for his team in Kiel having a heavy schedule after a second coronavirus quarantine period.
“It certainly wasn’t easy for them and they have many games now. But they have only had one mid-week fixture and are at the start of a tough programme,” Terzic said.
Kiel have played two games since their return from quarantine while the Cup match is the first of seven or eight they face between May 1 and 23. Should they qualify for the Bundesliga promotion/relegation tie it would be two more on May 26 and 29.
The incentive is however a first-ever place in the Cup final and the first-ever promotion into the Bundesliga for the team that currently lies third in the second tier, with three games in hand.
Coach Ole Werner has named the fitness level of his players as “not ideal but as good as possible” while player Janni Serra has said that “no one of us has gone through such a strain before.”
Werner added “it is outstanding to have an official match against Dortmund,” and pledged that “we will gather all our strength to perform in the best possible way.”
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