Kovac likely to ring Dortmund changes
Niko Kovac hinted that he could make several changes to his Borussia Dortmund line-up for its Champions League clash away to Copenhagen.
Dortmund travels to Parken hoping to bounce back from its defeat to Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga at the weekend.
Kovac's side is seventh in the 36-team league standings after collecting four points from its first two games, beating Athletic Club 4-1 in its last European fixture.
Dortmund has only lost one of their eight Champions League matches under Kovac (W4 D3), who replaced Nuri Sahin in January.
Of managers with at least two games in charge of the German side in the competition, this is the lowest loss percentage (13 percent) of any individual.
But Dortmund heads into a testing period of fixtures, with its tie against Copenhagen the second of six away matches between last weekend and 8 November.
Given the extensive travel his squad will endure over this period, Kovac insisted that all of his squad will be needed to ensure momentum is maintained.
"Five of our next six games are away games. That means we'll be travelling a lot, of course," Kovac said.
"I'll definitely be making changes here and there. I'm not giving anything away about [Tuesday], but everyone will definitely get their chance at this stage."
This will be the fourth time Dortmund has faced a Danish team away from home in Europe. It is unbeaten in the previous three (W1 D2).
The only one that came in the Champions League was a 1-1 draw away to Copenhagen in the 2022-2023 group stage.
Having done so in each of its last three European games, Dortmund could score three or more goals in four consecutive games for the first time in its European Cup/Champions League history.
The main objective for Kovac is getting points on the board early on, having had to settle for a play-off place in last year's edition.
"We want to score points here tomorrow and climb as high as possible in the table," he said. "After that, we have to go to Manchester, where it won't be any easier. Ultimately, we'd like to avoid the play-off round and two additional games."
"When you know all the players who are playing, it's usually a little easier.
"But all the Copenhagen players are good enough to replace the players that are out injured.
"Sometimes it's even more difficult because they have extra motivation, because they want to show the coach 'you can count on me'.
"We want to focus on our game and pick up points against a very respectable opponent."
