Berlin (AFP) – Mario Goetze says German league leaders Borussia Dortmund must put their first defeat of the season behind them and bounce back in Saturday’s crunch Bundesliga showdown at home against Bayern Munich.
Atletico Madrid avenged their 4-0 drubbing at Dortmund from a fortnight ago with a 2-0 home victory on Tuesday in the group stages of the Champions League as the Germans suffered their first loss of the 2018/19 season.
Dortmund lead the Bundesliga and have a four-point lead over defending champions Bayern Munich who they host this weekend.
“Losing is a new situation, but we knew it would be a very intense week with Atletico and Bayern – now we have to bounce back,” said Goezte, who replaced striker Paco Alcacer for the last 15 minutes in Madrid.
Goalkeeper Roman Buerki, who has only been beaten 10 times in as many league games this season, said the defeat may have done Dortmund some good.
“Perhaps it’s not so bad, that we have come back down to earth after a few weeks when everything was going so well,” said Buerki.
Club captain Marco Reus, who has been in great form this season with nine goals and seven assists in 16 games, brushed the defeat off.
“We were not so fresh, Atletico closed down the space, which was very difficult for us, we only found a few ways through,” said Reus.
“It was the first defeat, but life goes on.”
The defeat in Madrid leaves both Dortmund and Atletico neck-and-neck on nine points in Group A with two matches left.
However, their focus now is on this weekend’s Bundesliga showdown as Dortmund look to prove their status as Germany’s top side and make amends for their heavy defeat to the Bavarians the last time they met.
Bayern thrashed Dortmund 6-0 in Munich in March, as Robert Lewandowski netted a hat-trick against his former club.
