{"id":1898,"date":"2025-04-14T13:23:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T05:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/84news.top\/?p=1898"},"modified":"2025-04-14T13:23:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T05:23:14","slug":"miracles-happen-says-kovac-before-uphill-barca-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/14\/miracles-happen-says-kovac-before-uphill-barca-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"'Miracles happen', says Kovac before uphill Barca battle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In that season, eventual winners Liverpool scored four at Anfield in the return leg to reach the Champions League final, after a 3-0 loss in Catalonia. <\/p>\n

Kovac said Barcelona were a better team now than six years ago, but told reporters “miracles happen all the time”.<\/p>\n

“We can remember the (Liverpool) game — I can remember it. But that was then and now we’re in 2024-25. We know the situation — we didn’t play well in the first leg,” Kovac said. <\/p>\n

“We want to show a different face tomorrow and we want to win. By how much, nobody can say now. <\/p>\n

“Miracles happen all the time, but Barcelona have not lost a game in 2025, which makes the challenge much more difficult. It won’t be easy.”<\/p>\n

Barcelona’s last loss came on Christmas Eve. Since then, Hansi Flick’s side have won 20 and drawn four matches in all competitions. <\/p>\n

Dortmund midfielder Felix Nmecha said his team-mates “believed” in the comeback. <\/p>\n

“With our fans behind us, anything is possible. We have to believe in it and we do believe in it,” the 24-year-old German international explained.<\/p>\n

Dortmund captain Emre Can did not train on Monday due to “muscular problems” and Kovac said: “We don’t know if he’ll be able to play — it’s quite possible that he will not.”<\/p>\n

Kovac, Dortmund’s third coach this season after taking over in January, praised Barcelona’s glittering forward line including Lamine Yamal and Raphinha, but singled out striker Robert Lewandowski.<\/p>\n

Lewandowski won two Bundesliga titles and played in the 2013 Champions League final with Dortmund, before spending eight years at Bayern, where he was coached by Kovac. <\/p>\n

He won the Champions League in 2020 under Kovac’s successor Flick, now the Barcelona coach. <\/p>\n

“He’s a great professional,” the Croatian said. “I’ve seen many good ones. But this guy? He lives, eats, drinks like a pro and does everything possible to stay fit.”<\/p>\n

Kovac, known for his focus on training and discipline, said anyone who hugs Lewandowski remarks “wow, what an Adonis”.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2025 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dortmund (Germany) (AFP) \u2013 <\/span> Trailing 4-0 going into Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final return home leg against Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund coach Niko Kovac said his side can draw inspiration from Liverpool’s 2018-19 comeback against the same opponents. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Issued on: 14\/04\/2025 – 15:23<\/span>Modified: 14\/04\/2025 – 15:21<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Borussia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-1898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-db"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloudfclub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}