Tuesday, 15th January, 2013
Mario Gotze has told his team-mates at Borussia Dortmund not to pay any attention to Jose Mourinho labelling them as favourites to win the Champions League.
Dortmund topped the group which contained Mourinho’s Real Madrid during the group stage and the Portuguese tactician has gone on the record as stating that he sees the Bundesliga champions as favourites to win Europe’s premier club competition.
But Gotze is wary of the tag of favourites and instead wants Dortmund to just concentrate on taking things one game at a time.
Indeed, the 20-year-old attacking midfielder has claimed that Dortmund’s ambitions are restricted to merely the quarter-final.
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"It proves that there is a lot of respect", Gotze told Kicker, when speaking about Mourinho’s comments.
"But there are more candidates to be named as favourites. We should not pay any attention to it.
"Nobody believed that we would finish first in this group. We wanted to reach the quarter-final and then look to the future."
Dortmund have been drawn to face Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League Round of 16.
In the Bundesliga they sit 12 points behind league leaders Bayern Munich and face an uphill task trying to retain their title.
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