Kovač says he shouted "Sabi, please shoot!" before Sabitzer's winning free kick

Borussia Dortmund coach Niko Kovač has explained how he influenced the winning goal in Tuesday's 3-2 DFB-Pokal win over Werder Bremen, Sportnet reports, citing his comments to German broadcaster ZDF. Marcel Sabitzer scored the winner with a free kick in the third minute of stoppage time, taking Dortmund into the last 16 after they had let a two-goal lead slip.

"I shouted from outside"

Kovač said the players' plan was not to shoot directly at goal. As Sportnet quotes him, Dortmund's Schlotterbeck told Sabitzer to let Svensson put the ball into the box instead. Then Kovač intervened:

"And then I shouted from outside: 'Sabi, please shoot!' Because I know what kind of shot he has. Not only from Dortmund, but from when he played in Austria." Original: "A onda sam ja izvana povikao: 'Sabi, molim te, pucaj!' Jer znam kakav udarac ima. Ne samo iz Dortmunda, nego još iz vremena kada je igrao u Austriji." (Niko Kovač to ZDF, via Sportnet)

Kovač added that Sabitzer "listened to the coach and deserves praise for that".

A strong first half, then a lapse

Kovač called the first half "really very good" and said Dortmund pressed Werder in their half, but he criticised the second half, in which substitute Niclas Füllkrug scored twice within four minutes to bring Werder back to 2-2. "We were simply not tactically good. We were too open," he said, according to Sportnet.

It was the second time this season that Dortmund let a two-goal lead slip against Werder. The first was in a 2-2 league draw in round five of the Bundesliga, reported by Sportnet. Tuesday's cup tie was a separate match.

Bayern next

Dortmund visit Bayern Munich on Saturday, 31 October, at 18:30 local time (12:30 CDT), with both teams on 17 points. Kovač warned that his team cannot repeat the second-half mistakes in Munich:

"We definitely have to improve. If we play like in the second half, it will certainly be much harder for us in Munich." Original: "Definitivno se moramo poboljšati. Ako budemo igrali kao u drugom poluvremenu, u Münchenu će nam sigurno biti puno teže." (Niko Kovač to ZDF, via Sportnet)

Kovač at Dortmund

Kovač has been Dortmund's coach since early 2025. Croatian outlets differ on the exact start: Index gives February 2025, Sportnet says spring, and an earlier Sportnet report says January. Both Index and Sportnet say Dortmund were 11th in the Bundesliga when he took over and that he led them to a Champions League place by the end of that season. Last season Dortmund finished second with 73 points, the fifth-highest total in the club's history.

On 13 October he signed a new contract running to 30 June 2029, as did his assistants Robert Kovač and Filip Tapalović. Sportnet reports that, according to figures published by the club, Dortmund had won 114 points in 53 Bundesliga games under Kovač at that point, an average of 2.15 per game, and that no coach in the club's history has a better average. Index reports the same figures.

This season Dortmund have 17 points from seven Bundesliga games, level with Bayern, who are ahead on goal difference (25:6 against 12:4), according to the table on Sportnet. On 24 October Dortmund beat Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 with a Maximilian Beier goal in the 80th minute and went top, three points ahead of Bayern, who had a game in hand, Sportske novosti reported via Hina. Bayern have since drawn level on points, as the Sportnet table shows.

In the Champions League, Dortmund have two wins (Villarreal and Sabah) and one defeat (Bodø/Glimt) from their first three games, Sportnet notes. The 2-1 win at Sabah on 20 October gave them six points and ended a run of three games without a win, according to Sportnet. They host Real Betis in early November.