Roman Burki was fantastic between the sticks, hails Lucien Favre
Borussia Dortmund manager Lucien Favre has praised goalkeeper Roman Burki for his outstanding performance in goal against Slavia Praha. The German giants ensured qualification into the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League after beating the Czech Republic club 2-1 at Signal Iduna Park.
Borussia Dortmund won 2-1 at home to progress into the next round of the UEFA Champions League at the expense of Serie A team Inter Milan as the Italians fell short to Barcelona at San Siro. The Germans took an early lead via Jadon Sancho but his goal was cancelled by Tomas Soucek just before the half time. Julian Brandt, who signed for Dortmund in the summer, delivered victory for the men in yellow with a decisive 61st minute strike.
During the post-match conference, coach Lucien Favre praised shot-stopper Roman Burki for his excellent outing between the sticks. The Swiss international made seven brilliant saves for Dortmund which includes two saves to brilliantly deny Milan Skoda and Abdulla Yusuf Helal to secure all three points. Favre further added that while the goalkeeper was exceptional against Slavia Praha, the win was thanks to a team effort.
“Everyone, without a single exception, played a part in this win. It was a crazy match. Constant chances. We had to win this game – it's what we were aiming for and we did it, but it was difficult. Slavia were very tough as expected. They had drawn their previous games, we hadn't. Roman Burki was unbelievable, he was fantastic. But just to reiterate: we achieved this victory together. We created a lot of scoring opportunities and should've been winning more than 1-0. We were too open at certain points. It's a win but we need to continue to work hard,” said Favre to the Goal.
Burki made seven saves in total to confirm Dortmund's place in the knockout rounds at the expense of Inter, who succumbed to an Ansu Fati winner in the 86th minute at San Siro. Dortmund ends the group stage in second place behind Barcelona with 10 points. The BVB are currently third in the Bundesliga table with 26 points, 5 points behind leaders Borussia Monchengladbach. The Swiss goalkeeper was happy to hear the final whistle and congratulated the team on their progression.
“The whole team felt a huge sense of relief after the final whistle. Hardly anything had filtered through to us. It was only when the spectators were celebrating shortly before the end that we looked at the screen. That gave us an additional boost at that point. We're a team, we battled well. It was clear that I could be in for a busy evening. But that's what I'm there for – perhaps today I might even say that I did fairly well,” said the former Freiburg shotstopper.