From a memo for Julian Brandt Niko Kovac do not speak after the Champions League. The BVB coach justified the waiver of the offensive player in the starting XI at 3-1 (1-0) against FC Barcelona with his recent workload. «Julian has just played everything in the past few weeks. I thought he needed a break, »said Kovac after the quarter-final secondary on Tuesday evening. “Julian continues to have the status that he had before.”
After taking office in early February, Kovac still had the 28-year-old with the world-class players Jamal Musiala from FC Bayern and Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen compared. But Brandt has been out of shape for months. In the end, the criticism of him became more and more louder.
After a very weak performance at 2-2 on Saturday at Bayern, Brandt against Barça was only substituted in the 77th minute. Without him in the starting eleven, Dortmund showed the best performance in a long time, but was eliminated from the first leg despite the victory because of the 0: 4 mortgage – with the noble technician was unlucky when he was revoked the supposed 4: 1 due to an offside position just two minutes after his substitution.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 250416-930-443322/1
