Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.
Niko Kovac urged his team to be more clinical in the final after squandering several opportunities to score past Sabah in their narrow 2-1 win in the Champions League.
Ahead of kick-off, Kovac said a trip to the Azerbaijani minnows was the perfect chance to end their attacking struggles, having failed to score in each of their last two games.
Serhou Guirassy capitalised on some poor goalkeeping from Stas Pokatilov to score a 10th-minute opener, but Sabah hit back through Aden McCarthy just before the break.
But eight minutes after the restart, Guirassy was in the right place at the right time to tuck home Joey Veerman’s cross, and it was his double that proved decisive for Dortmund.
However, it was yet another frustrating outing in front of goal for Kovac’s side. The Bundesliga giants registered an expected goals (xG) total of 3.73 from their 22 shots, with only nine of those on target.
“We played a really good attacking game and created a lot of chances,” Kovac told reporters.
“If we had even capitalised on half of them, we no doubt would have won by three or four goals.
“We made small mistakes here and there, which allowed our opponent back into the game. It was a tough battle, but totally deserved.”
Heading back home with three points! https://t.co/0N4rM2OgqL
— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) October 20, 2026
Kovac’s comments were backed up by Dortmund sporting director Ole Book, who urged his team to be more “ruthless” moving forward.
“When you travel this far — and not just us, but the fans as well — it only makes it sweeter to get the three points, which were also critical because of our loss in Norway,” he said.
“Of course, it feels good to get a victory after three winless games. We definitely could have helped ourselves out today by being more ruthless.
“On the other hand, we took a significant step forward in terms of the way we played football.”
Despite Kovac and Book’s concerns, Dortmund were able to end a run of four consecutive away Champions League defeats, with this their first away win for 364 days, since beating Copenhagen 4-2 in October 2025.
And key to their triumph was Guirassy, who became only the second player to score 20+ Champions League goals for Dortmund (now 21), after Marco Reus (24).
In reaching that tally in 27 games, Guirassy scored 20 goals in the second-fewest appearances for a German club, behind Harry Kane for Bayern Munich (20 in 26).
Since the start of the 2024-25 season, Guirassy is the fourth player to score 20+ Champions League goals (21), after Kane (28), Kylian Mbappe (24) and Erling Haaland (20).
But even the Dortmund number nine could not look past his team’s struggles in the final third, with Guirassy having more shots (eight) than any other player for Kovac’s side, with four of those on target.
“I’m obviously happy with the win because it was so important for the team. The last two games were tough, which is why it was so important to win,” Guirassy added.
“And that’s exactly what we did. Congratulations to the entire team, and thanks also to the fans for their support. But we missed a few chances. If we can all be consistent, I believe we can achieve a lot this season.”
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