Njinmah: "Happy about my debut but mixed feelings" | Matchday Review | Leipzig – BVB 3:0

I have no idea what to say – I’m just so happy to make my debut. But we lost 3-0, so I have mixed feelings. Matchday Review Have fun with 1&1 In a way, the weather is fitting given the result yesterday afternoon. After BVB lost 3-0 in Leipzig, welcome to our Matchday Review from Dortmund-Brackel. There’s no doubt that it was a poor performance – the players and the coach agreed on that – though there was one Borussia player who can take something positive from the game. Justin Njinmah made his Bundesliga debut, and in a moment we’ll

hear what he made of it. But first, here’s how Edin Terzic summarised the game in his press conference. We played against very strong opponents. We made a decent start to the game, but we didn’t respond to the first goal, and here in Leipzig you need more than a good 5 or 6-minute spell to come away with anything. We really struggled with the pressing – they defended with real aggression and intensity in 1-on-1s, and we didn’t manage to escape that. Instead, each pass we played made us even less confident. We gave the ball away so many

times, and we deserved to be behind at

half-time. We tried to change one or two things, and Tony Modeste had a chance to pull a goal back for us in the 60th minute, but we didn’t get that goal. It was a poor performance against very strong opponents, and we deserved to lose. Yesterday was our second defeat of the season, but two players made their Bundesliga debuts. One was Alexander Meyer in goal, who had already made his Champions League debut on Tuesday, and the other was Justin Njinmah, who came on in the 69th minute. Here’s what

he made of his Bundesliga debut. Of course for me personally… I have no idea what to say – I’m just so happy to make my debut. But we lost 3-0, so I have mixed feelings. You say you have mixed feelings. What did the coach say when he brought you on? Edin just told me to run, and to try to get in behind. I did my best, but… It was a tough game, and we knew it would be. As I say, mixed feelings. Collectively, you struggled up front. You were on the sidelines for a long time,

then you were in the game, so you experienced it first hand: why was it so hard to create chances today? It’s hard to say. We knew this game wouldn’t really be about tactics, but about who fought harder, and who worked harder. I think we did that well, but we didn’t really have any luck in the final third today. It has been different in recent weeks, so we shouldn’t be downhearted about this for too long. We need to keep our heads up and keep going. Heads up and keep going – the next game is on Wednesday,

so what’s next for you? Do you know if you’ll be travelling to Manchester? I don’t know. As I say, for now I’m just so happy that played my first 20 minutes in the Bundesliga, and Edin will probably tell me in the next few days what’s going to happen on Wednesday. But I’m happy even if my next game is against Zwickau in the third division next week. I’m grateful, and whenever I’m involved at this level, I’ll give everything. Justin normally plays for our U23s, where he’s already scored one goal in the third division this season. Yesterday

his team took on newly promoted VfB Oldenburg – let’s see what happened. With his coach, Christian Preußer, watching from the sidelines, the visitors from Oldenburg went in front after half an hour thanks to this goal from Manfred Starke. But the goal shouldn’t have counted, as Starke used his hand to control the ball here. In the pouring rain in Dortmund, Marco Pasalic equalised shortly after half-time, but in the 89th minute Robert Zietarski scored the winner for the away team. So the U23s lost 2-1 at home against Oldenburg. This is a weekend we want to move on

from very quickly, so let’s look ahead. On Wednesday the first team are away to Manchester City in the Champions League, and this guy will travel there today, so that he can pick up the team from the airport on time. Then, on Saturday, it’s the derby against the Blues. Until then, have a good week – bye from Dortmund.

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