Kovac: “We’ll make up for it!”

Niko Kovac on the loss in Düsseldorf: "You could already see today that we really stepped it up a notch in our second week of training. Our legs were heavy. The first half was okay. In the second half, our resistance wasn't quite what I had in mind. But we don't want to read too much into it. Everyone gave it their all, but in the end, it wasn't enough."

...the unique squad situation during preseason: "Every team that had a lot of national team players at the World Cup is facing the same problem. So with our ten national team players, we've already had quite a few who aren't here. But we'll make up for it! We'll get it done! The lads who joined us yesterday are in good physical shape."