Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke believes his side would have won the Champions League if Robert Lewandowski and Mario Gotze had stayed with the club. Dortmund reach the Champions League final in 2013 only to lose to rivals Bayern Munich, who then went on to sign both Gotze and Lewandowski.
Watzke feels if BVB had been able to keep hold of the duo, then the club would have been able to add another European crown to their list of honours, having won the Champions League back in 1997. “We had a world-class team,” wrote Watzke in his biography ‘Echte Liebe’ – ‘True Love’, a Dortmund slogan.
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“And if that team’s structure had not been left in tatters, then it would have also won the Champions League – one hundred per cent! “We just lost the final in 2013. The next few years would have been our years, for sure! But then Mario left, then Robert went, then all the s**t started.”
Dortmund, who currently find themselves down in eighth place in the Bundesliga table, are next in action after the international break on Saturday when they play hosts to Borussia Monchengladbach.
It has been a slow start to the campaign for BVB, with just three wins from their first seven Bundesliga games to date.
Dortmund find themselves still just four points off the top of the table, with Monchengladback leading the way in the standings with five wins from their first seven games.
BVB have fared much better in the Champions League in the early stages of this season and their 2-0 victory at Slavia Prague saw them climb to the top of Group F ahead of Barcelona on goal difference.
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