Borussia Dortmund started the 2023/2024 Bundesliga season with a working victory, beating 1. FC Köln 1-0 just before the end.

Despite the 1-0 victory over 1. FC Köln and the three points bagged, Edin Terzic, coach of Borussia Dortmund, was not satisfied. He thanked his goalkeeper in particular for the first three points of the season.

Terzic told “Sky”: “Gregor Kobel was the reason why we played to nil and were able to win it. There were two or three really good reactions from him on the line, where on the one hand you have to say: that’s his quality, but on the other hand there was also a portion of luck, because the Cologne team couldn’t take advantage of the good chances. We need a good goalkeeper to achieve our goals. We would have liked to have needed him less today. We are dissatisfied.”

Of course, the football coach was quick to pinpoint the reasons for Dortmund’s poor showing against Cologne.

“There wasn’t much in it that we liked. We like that we took the three points and that we were dangerous offensively after standard situations. We worked a lot on that. But there were too many things we didn’t like. We tried to correct that during the half-time break. Also with a few changes. The only positive thing was that we came off the pitch as winners,” said Terzic.

He added: “We had a lot of possession, but in goal-dangerous zones. Actually, we wanted to speed up the game all the time and combine quickly, but we didn’t occupy the six-man space and had to swallow a lot.”

And the goal for the season? Terzic’s answer: “Now it’s about creating new images. We played well all of 2023 and didn’t manage to make up for it in the second half. We want to prevent that this time. So it won’t be that close again.”

Borussia Dortmund’s campaign continues next Saturday (26 August, 3.30pm) with the derby at VfL Bochum. VfL started the season with a 0:5 loss in Stuttgart.