by Borussia Dortmund manager Edin Terzic, 40, believed that with so many new players coming in the summer of 2022 and January – apart from manager Graham Potter, who succeeded Thomas Tuchel – it was renewed. Chelsea, who the German side will host on Wednesday, 15 of this month, at the Signal Idun Arena, in the first of the two legs of the Champions League round of 16 “is a bit of a mystery”.
Currently third in the Bundesliga (three points behind the leader, champions Bayern Munich), Borussia Dortmund do not forget the acquisition of Enzo Perez for 121 million euros from Benfica in January, but also the new arrivals for the “blue » Londoners from other big names such as Benoit Badiashile, Noni Madueke, Andrey Santos, David Fofana and Ukraine’s Mykhailo Mudryk, among many others, leading to an investment of over €350 million in signings for the London club in January alone, including by João Félix (provided by Atl. Madrid).
“It’s not easy to analyze Chelsea. After the Champions League draw, we were watching their games, but then they had all this activity in the January transfer window! They sold key players, signed other valuable footballers. So we went to see the official list of players registered in the Champions League, where João Félix is already there, for example. So I’m telling you it’s a bit of a mystery: we don’t really know what to expect, nor how they’ll play, but we’re prepared for every surprise,” assured the coach of the German team on Tuesday. press conference held in Dortmund, according to Kicker.
And to show the added headache it is, for Terzic, to try to envisage what strategy Chelsea will employ, with so many resources at their disposal and so many changes to the 2021 European and world champions – who are now in the middle ninth place in the standings in the Premier League -, the German coach exemplified. Look, in defense they usually have a back four… but they have used all three centre-backs. We are prepared for any scenario,” Terzic guaranteed.
With five wins in the current calendar year in the Bundesliga – the last of them on Saturday, 11, in Bremen, over Werder Bremen (2-0) – morale is high inside Borussia Dortmund, as it could not be otherwise, Terzic admitted. .
“Yes, but we lost Yusufah [Moukoko, avançado] due to ligament damage in Saturday’s game,” the manager revealed: the striker faces a forced layoff of at least six weeks.
We need to win at least one of the two games against Chelsea to go through. Of course it’s easier here in Dortmund, with 80,000 fans creating euphoria and atmosphere around the team. But we need, and we know, two good performances: we will try to live up to expectations,” underlined the coach of the German team.
“It will not be an easy task as we know the excellent quality of Chelsea’s players. They are a top team, very strong in the winter market, so we are asking for a great performance,” concluded Edin Terzic.
