Football
ESPN staff 8y

Dortmund fans' whistles at Mario Gotze don't surprise Thomas Tuchel

Thomas Tuchel was not surprised that Mario Gotze heard whistles from the home support as Borussia Dortmund beat Freiburg 3-1 on Friday night at the Westfalenstadion.

Gotze, 24, made an acrimonious move from Dortmund to Bundesliga rivals Bayern Munich in 2013 but returned this summer when it became clear he was not part of new manager Carlo Ancelotti's plans at the Allianz Arena.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang opened the scoring for Dortmund just before half-time in a move that Gotze helped set up, but the World Cup winner with Germany heard some whistles from sections of the crowd when he was subbed off for Raphael Guerreiro in the 71st minute.

Tuchel told his postmatch news conference: "I think this is a normal process. The whistles were not so out of the blue.

"The absolute majority has expressed its solidarity and these actions show that the majority is behind Mario and he enjoys their full support.

"But I cannot imagine that this is an ongoing issue, the overwhelming majority of those applauding is significant."

Tuchel also said that goal-scorer Aubameyang, making his 100th Bundesliga appearance, had taken a knock in the match and his status for the midweek Champions League clash with Real Madrid was in doubt.

"Aubameyang has twice taken a blow. We must wait until tomorrow [Saturday]," Tuchel said.

The Gabon international, however, told reporters: "It's OK. I'm not too bad."

U.S. international Christian Pulisic said he was pleased how the match panned out.

"I am completely satisfied and think that we deserved to win," he said. "It's just fantastic to play in this team alongside such wonderful players. It is great that the coach is relying on me so much at the moment and that I am getting playing time."

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