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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Gabriel McKay

Marco Rose in Rangers 'hornet's nest' battle cry as Borussia Dortmund boss shares Erling Haaland injury update

Borussia Dortmund boss Marco Rose has been "poking the hornet's nest" as he looks to get a reaction from his players after their first leg loss to Rangers.

The German giants were left stunned in the Europa League first leg on Thursday as Gio van Bronckhorst's side ran out 4-2 winners in the Westfalenstadion.

It's a competition Dortmund are targeting to win this season, but they now face a huge uphill task at Ibrox.

The reaction from the German media was scathing, and the BVB boss admits he's put a rocket up his players in training as he looks to turn the tie around.

Revealing how he reacted to that loss Rose said: "I've been unpleasant so far and I'll continue to be unpleasant.

(PA)

"I'm poking the hornet's nest.

"We're working things out and we'll keep at it. We've been an absolute disappointment up to this point, especially in the cup competitions.

"In part we've delivered results, we've played almost half of the season without our top-scorer.

"We've had enough to win a lot of games even then, but in others we struggle.

"I'm also not saying we can't do without Erling Haaland against Rangers, we can and we had to. But when a player like that is missing for more than half the season, it does something to any team."

Haaland has been training with his team-mates ahead of the second leg, but the Norwegian star won't be fit to face Borussia Monchengladbach on Sunday.

And Rose gave an update on his status ahead of the fixture: "Erling is not ready for the game. He has participated in parts of training, but he is not yet fully operational.

"Others have to step into the breach, we can't sugarcoat anything.

"We're now introducing Donny Malen to the Bundesliga and Dortmund. He's felt like he's taken one-to-two steps back in the last two games. Before that, I publicly praised him for his development here.

"If Erling isn't there, others have to pull on the chains and prepare the gates. I have to say this, too; we won 3-0 in Berlin a few days ago. We kept a clean sheet after a long time."

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