Juergen Klopp has played down a row between Roman Weidenfeller and Marco Reus in the final minutes of Borussia Dortmund’s 2-0 DFB Pokal semifinal victory against Wolfsburg.
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Dortmund ended their week of big games on a high as they put two past Wolfsburg goalkeeper Max Gruen, and for a third consecutive match did not concede.
In the space of seven days, Dortmund beat Real Madrid 2-0 in the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinal, demolished Bayern 3-0 at the Allianz Arena, and, on Tuesday, made it into the DFB Pokal final for a second time in three seasons.
With Ilkay Gundogan finally putting pen to paper on a contract until 2016, die Schwarzgelben were expected to be in high spirits, but a last-minute row between keeper Weidenfeller and in-form midfielder Reus marred matters at Westfalenstadion.
The two Germany internationals clashed when Reus lost the ball close to the halfway line, and the keeper was furious at his midfielder, leading to both players shouting at each other on the pitch.
“Everything was fine after the match. Keepers have to take smashes in their face from one metre for us. It’s understandable, it got a bit louder,” Klopp told ARD TV in a postmatch interview. “Marco has been playing on an unbelievable level for the past three weeks. He just did not have enough oxygen in his head.”
Reus provided the assists for both Dortmund goals on the night. He has now been directly involved in 12 of Dortmund’s last 13 goals, scoring eight and setting up a further four.
However, Reus, who has now scored 38 goals in all competitions for Dortmund since joining the club in the summer of 2012, will need to work hard to get close to Robert Lewandowski’s Dortmund tally. The future Bayern Munich player was on target again versus Wolfsburg.
His strike in the 2-0 victory was Lewandowski’s 100th goal for Dortmund. He has now scored 71 goals in the Bundesliga, 19 in European competitions and 10 in the German Cup.
After hammering the ball into Wolfsburg’s net, Lewandowski celebrated his landmark goal by lifting his BVB jersey and showing a shirt with the number 100 underneath.
100 Tore für den BVB. Danke, Robert! // Thank you for 100 goals so far, Robert Lewandowski! #bvbwob 2-0 pic.twitter.com/XM4a6nCuP3
— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) April 15, 2014
“That was my idea,” Lewandowski later explained. “I had the feeling I would the find the back of the net. I am delighted about my 100th goal for Borussia, and it was a beauty as well. But we have not reached the end yet. There are still four games left in Bundesliga, and, of course, the final in Berlin.”
Dortmund could be facing Lewandowski’s future club in his final game for die Schwarzgelben. On Wednesday, Bayern host second tier club Kaiserslautern.
"I will fight for Dortmund until the last minute. I want that title so bad, that’s very important to me. We’ll find out, who will be our opponent. But, naturally, Bayern are favourites against Kaiserslautern,” Lewandowski said.