Bastian Oczipka: We had hoped for much, much more

“It’s obvious that, for a professional footballer, it’s much nicer to play in front of the fans. However, we won’t use the empty stands as the reason why we lost the derby. We made too many individual errors, which Dortmund took advantage of,” Oczipka said. Errors that the team will look to avoid in their upcoming games. “We need to be at our best against Augsburg,” the 31-year-old said. Augsburg, who fell 2-1 to Wolfsburg on Saturday afternoon, will travel to the VELTINS-Arena next weekend (Sunday, 24.05, 13:30 CEST).

According to Oczipka, the team will have to work on keeping their shape on the pitch over the next few days. Oczipka – the only outfield player aside from Düsseldorf right-back Matthias Zimmermann yet to miss a minute in the Bundesliga this season – added, “That was something that didn’t work so well in the derby. Our opponents were able to get through us relatively easily.” 

However, at the same time, he is quick to add that the team did not slack off during the nine-week break. “We worked hard and it was intense. But, there’s plenty of work still to be done,” Oczipka said. The 31-year-old is confident that the team will be able to draw some lessons from the derby defeat, including what it feels like to play in front of empty stands. “We now have that experience,” said Oczipka.