Borussia Dortmund coach Lucien Favre hit back on Thursday at criticism of his team, who will look to keep pace in a tight Bundesliga title race in their tricky test at Freiburg this weekend, reports AFP.
Dortmund remain just a point behind league leaders Bayern Munich with five games to go, but faced widespread criticism after their nervy 2-1 home win over Mainz last weekend, in which Favre's side had to withstand a second half onslaught from the away side to hold onto the three points.
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"Everyone is saying we were bad in the second half, but that is an exaggeration," an animated Favre told reporters on Thursday.
"We had three clear chances in the second half, and we only played badly in the last 10 minutes."
Title hopefuls Dortmund face Freiburg on Sunday, in the first of several potential banana skins between now and the end of the season.Freiburg are a notoriously hard team to visit, and have already had an impact on the title race by holding Bayern to a draw at home earlier this month.
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Dortmund's defence remains ravaged by injury ahead of Sunday's match. Full-backs Lukasz Piszczek and Achraf Hakimi are still
sidelined, while Favre confirmed on Thursday that centre-back Dan-Axel Zagadou has picked up a knock to his knee.