Borussia Dortmund want new contract for Favre

Borussia Dortmund are keen to tie head coach Lucien Favre down to a new contract, chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke has confirmed.

Favre was handed a two-year deal ahead of the 2018-19 season and has led Dortmund’s exciting young squad to the top of the Bundesliga and into the last 16 of the Champions League.

BVB hold a seven-point lead at the top-flight summit and are on course to scupper Bayern Munich’s attempts to claim the title for a seventh successive season.

Dortmund are thus keen to offer the Swiss fresh terms, though Watzke stated there is no rush to reach an agreement.

“It is logical that we will talk to him about a contract extension because he is simply doing good work,” Watzke told Sport Bild. “The co-operation is excellent, so we want to continue it.

“The development of our team is very good. That is primarily down to Lucien. There is no road map, but we will find the right time for talks.

“Neither of us will put ourselves under any pressure.”

Disappointing to be out of the cup after a difficult game tonight

We will pick ourselves up and go again on Saturday

Special thank you to the fans tonight who were with us all the way pic.twitter.com/9p40rNx2V5

— Axel Witsel (@axelwitsel28) February 5, 2019

Dortmund were knocked out of the DFB-Pokal 4-2 on penalties by Werder Bremen after a thrilling 3-3 draw at the Signal Iduna Park on Tuesday.

Marco Reus was withdrawn at half-time due to a thigh complaint and the captain is unsure if he will be fit to face Hoffenheim on Saturday, with the first leg of their Champions League tie against Tottenham following four days later.

“I cannot say yet if I can play at the weekend. We wanted to play it safe,” said Reus.

“There were not many games until [the final in] Berlin, but we’re out and we only have ourselves to blame. I hope we learn from this game. We need to be smarter.”