German club vows to be strong after Tuesday's explosions targeting the team bus; insists hate cannot thwart the game of football
Borussia Dortmund players wait outside the team bus after it was damaged in an explosion before their Champions League quarter-final match against Monaco in Dortmund, Germany on Tuesday. Pic:AP/PTI
Borussia Dortmund players wait outside the team bus after it was damaged in an explosion before their Champions League quarter-final match against Monaco in Dortmund, Germany on Tuesday. Pic:AP/PTI
Dortmund (Germany): Borussia Dortmund will not give in to terror, the Bundesliga team's chief executive vowed yesterday after the bus carrying the squad to a match was hit by three explosions, injuring two people.
"In the dressing room, I called on the team to show the public that we will not give in to terror," Hans-Joachim Watzke said on Twitter, as the German club announced that the players had returned to training a day after the blasts.
'Incomprehensible act'
Watzke admitted the bomb attack on the team bus which led to the postponement of their Champions League meeting with Monaco, and left defender Marc Bartra with a broken wrist, had left the team needing to come to terms with the "incomprehensible" very quickly. Watzke said: "The BVB family was always especially strong when it had to cope with difficult situations. This is perhaps the most difficult situation that we have faced in the past decades.
The Dortmund team bus with its windows shattered. Pic/AFP
"I am sure that we will show ourselves as a strong and united BVB like never before. We want to show that terror and hatred can never dictate our actions." Dortmund's Swiss goalkeeper Roman Burki said: "After the bang, we all crouched down in the bus. We did not know if more would come." Some players hurled themselves to the ground, he said, adding that Bartra was "hit by splinters of broken glass".
'Hard to absorb'
Dortmund president Reinhard Rauball said, "The worst thing would be if whoever committed this attack was now able to get to affect them through it," he said. Ex-Dortmund player Steffen Freund warned such a attack would not be forgotten. "Mentally and psychologically that is hard to absorb, it's a lot to deal with," he said.
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