Kovac demands more from Dortmund ahead of Barcelona tie – Soccer News

Borussia Dortmund head coach Niko Kovac was delighted with his team’s 2-1 comeback victory at Lille in the Champions League on Wednesday, but predicted they would need to lift their game further to see off Barcelona in the quarter-finals.

The Germans drew 1-1 at home last week and went a goal down five minutes into the reverse fixture in France, but fought back with two second-half goals to go through 3-2 on aggregate.

Dortmund are into the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the ninth time and have made it to this stage in consecutive seasons for the first time since doing so in 2012-13 and 2013-14.

“It was a great team effort. It was unfortunate that we went a goal down, but the team still dominated the game,” Kovac told DAZN.

“Overall, there were a lot of chances for a Champions League away game. That shows that the team has quality and was born for games like this.”

Yes, please. pic.twitter.com/xM9YweU9gf

— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) March 12, 2025

Emre Can scored from the penalty spot in the 55th minute to cancel out Jonathan David’s early opener, before Max Beier struck the winner 11 minutes later.

Kovac said Dortmund would face a tougher battle next month against Barcelona, who eased past Benfica in the round of 16, but was still confident in his side’s chances of beating the Spaniards.

“Lille are a strong team on the ball. But Barcelona will top that, by a lot actually,” Kovac said.

“For us, that means we’ll need to make the most of the phases of possession that we get. When we’re not in possession, we need to defend well.

“But we have good players too, good speeds, that we can use to hurt our opponents.”