‘We can be very proud’… Niko Kovac reacts after BVB end the unbeaten run of Barcelona in 2025 | OneFootball

FC Barcelona were clearly the favorites as they travelled to Germany to face Borussia Dortmund in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie.

The Blaugranes enjoyed a 4-goal advantage from the first leg, and thus, the Germans faced an almost impossible task to overturn such a huge deficit against one of the most in-form teams in Europe.

However, their head coach, Niko Kovac, and players were confident about their ability to still fight for qualification to the semi-finals, and they showed this ability last night as they won the second leg 3-1. Still, this win was not big enough to overcome the deficit from the first leg, and they lost 5-3 on aggregate.

Speaking to the press after the game, Kovac was quite proud of his team’s performance, despite not being able to advance to the next round of the competition.

As Mundo Deportivo has reported, the German coach expressed his pride in being the only team to beat Barcelona in 2025:

“We all saw a great match, especially from my team. It was a high-intensity game with a lot of offensive pressure. Obviously, I’m disappointed about the elimination, but we handed Barcelona their first defeat of 2025, and that says a lot. We can be very proud.”

The Dortmund coach also highlighted how his team approached this game in a different way than the first leg:

“It was very different from the first leg. We were much braver and much more precise, we showed more courage, and of course, our fans were also a key factor in a match like this, which made me very happy. To play like that against a team like Barcelona is truly worthy of all praise.”

Dortmund fans would undoubtedly be happy to see this performance from their team, even though they have been eliminated from the competition. Meanwhile, Barcelona will be looking to put in a better performance in the next round of the competition, where they will face either Bayern Munich or Inter Milan.