Departure for a new German era?

A point win away from home marked the end: As the last German representative, Borussia Dortmund was able to celebrate extensively again after making it into the knockout stages of the Champions League a week ago and also a positive interim conclusion in view of what the Bundesliga clubs think is right to draw a formidable preliminary round.

After all, four clubs made it into the round of 16, but at least one BVB protagonist did not look rosy after the 1-1 (1-1) late Wednesday evening in Copenhagen. In any case, national player Emre Can was hard on himself and his colleagues: "We jogged around, we walked around," complained the national player: "We're playing the Champions League here. It's about a lot of money. It's about everyone wanting to show themselves, everyone wanting to prove themselves. I think we didn't do that 100 percent today."

In fact, the opponent not only scored the first goal in the sixth game of preliminary round group G, but the supposed underdog from the Danish metropolis was also significantly stronger than BVB and actually deserved a win. Unlike Can, coach Edin Terzic at least had some understanding of the slow pace and referred to the extremely tight schedule before the World Cup and the fact that given the starting position, it was only a matter of fulfilling one's duties. "It was the fifth English week," he said. "You have to forgive someone sometimes. We wanted to show that in this game, even if it wasn't a matter of life or death, we're going to give it our all. But we lost a lot of turnovers and had to catch a lot of counterattacks.”

After all, this time it was enough for Dortmund - unlike in the previous season - to qualify for the round of 16. Together with FC Bayern, Eintracht Frankfurt and RB Leipzig, which secured participation two hours before Borussia by beating Shakhtar Donetsk 4-0 (1-0), the Ruhrpottklub can spend the winter in the premier class. Only Bayer Leverkusen, third in the group, failed in this endeavor and "only" started in the second half of the season in the Europa League. It is an expression of the new strength of the German representatives, who so often complain about financial disadvantages in the competition with the grandees of the industry.

The new dominance is particularly noticeable when looking at the other remaining clubs in the draw next Monday. Because while the English Premier League sends four clubs into the race as usual, the highly rated Spanish La Liga has to be content with just one representative on Europe's biggest football stage: Real Madrid. FC Barcelona failed at the preliminary round hurdle, as did Atlético Madrid and FC Sevilla.

The reasons for the German high-altitude flight and the prospect of a new, small era can be seen above all in the footballing staff and the acting officials and coaches. The Bundesliga quartet managed to form stars like Jude Bellingham (19 years old, Dortmund), Jamal Musiala (19, Bavaria), Jesper Lindström (22, Frankfurt) and Christopher Nkunku (24, Leipzig) and also - despite sometimes more violently poaching attempts – to keep. In this respect, the positive interim balance is also a credit to the managers and coaches at the four locations.

A small episode at the Retortenklub proves the mutual and performance-enhancing interaction quite well: Because the Frenchman Nkunku initially played on the left wing after the new coach Marco Rose took office and lost a lot of his goal threat there, they looked for a solution in Leipzig: "He gave me helped us along,” Rose explained after the victory over Donetsk. "He played attacking on the left in the first two games. Then he came to me and said he had to get closer to the goal because he felt more comfortable there. He scored straight away and that makes the coach happy to have taken his player's advice.” Nkunku scored the important first goal to make it 4-0.

Elsewhere there is also great joy at the moment: Hasan Salihamidzic believes that the performance of the German clubs in the European Cup is a seal of quality for the Bundesliga. "We can all be a little proud of that. We have set an example in Europe,” said FC Bayern's sporting director. "It's nice to see so many German clubs progressing," he said after Bayern's 2-0 (1-0) win against Inter Milan at the end of the group stage: "I've said before that the Bundesliga is simply a compliment have to do, not only nationally but also internationally, what kind of work the boys do.”

Where the path will lead for the German participants is an exciting question that will be clarified in the round of 16 duels starting on February 14 after the longest winter break in Bundesliga history. By then, Emre Can's mood should have improved significantly.