Kovac and Can take aim at Dortmund performance in Lille draw

Borussia Dortmund captain Emre Can and head coach Niko Kovac were both disappointed with surrendering a lead to draw 1-1 with Lille at home in the Champions League round of 16 first leg.

Karim Adeyemi had put the home side a goal up at half-time, but Hakan Arnor Haraldsson equalised in the second half to give the visitors a draw to take back to .

It was a performance that frustrated Can, particularly their second-half showing.

“It wasn’t a good game at all,” said captain Emre Can in a post-match interview. “There wasn’t enough intensity on the ball, we definitely need to play better.

“We were far too ive. We didn’t get to the point where it hurt, and you have to do that against them. We need to be better on the ball and be more courageous. We can and must do much better.”

Work to do in . pic.twitter.com/U6GoUP4MAC

— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) March 4, 2025

Head coach Kovac was in agreement with his captain at the second-half non-performance, suggesting that they lost control of the game.

“We had no grip in the second half. We didn’t shift the play enough, and we didn’t have enough phases where we calmed the game down. We gave the ball away too easily,” he said.

“We didn’t execute well. We just didn’t influence the game enough. There were hardly any phases where we calmed the pace of the match, and instead, we surrendered possession far too easily.

“Then, it turned into an end-to-end game. Aside from the moment that led to the equaliser, Lille did not create many chances to score. I am confident that we will rectify all our shortcomings in the second leg,”

Looking ahead to next week’s return leg in , Kovac’s message to his players was simple: “We have to play like we did in the first half.”

The winner of this tie will face either Benfica or Barcelona in the quarter-final.