Großkreutz wants to kick BVB out of the cup: “They’ll be champions, that’s good enough”

Borussia Dortmund will play in the DFB Pokal against 3. Liga side KFC Uerdingen on Friday (2.45 pm ET/ESPN3). They will face old BVB faithful Kevin Großkreutz, who is been greatly anticipating the tie.

“They will hopefully win the German championship, that’s good enough,” the former Dortmund player told Sky Sport News HD.

Großkreutz, who won the German cup with Dortmund in 2012, recaptured his excitement when the draw was made in June.

“I watched the cup draw with my family. Everyone was super psyched. My daughter will walk on the pitch with me. I got like 500 WhatsApp messages within 10 mins. I always dreamed of such a draw. It’s going to be a cool game,” the 31-year-old said.

One of the WhatsApp messages was from BVB captain Marco Reus. Großkreutz revealed: “I was already joking with Marco that he should bring shin pads. We’re happy to see each other again.”

Dortmund fans will hope that it only was a joke since Großkreutz was just handed a four-match suspension by the German FA for kicking an opponents legs’ from behind off-ball. The midfielder was lucky that the ban for his vicious kick remained for the third division.

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Großkreutz playing against BVB in the German cup is, however, not a novelty. He faced the Black and Yellows in 2016 with VfB Stuttgart in the quarter-final. He said that he should be able to put his love aside for 90 minutes: “Once you’re on the pitch, you probably forget about all that because then it’s about given everything in 90 minutes and sacrificing yourself for KFC Uerdingen. But it will be emotional before and after the match. I will look to the away stand and will find many familiar faces.”

Uerdingen will approach the game in Düsseldorf with the spirit of the underdog with the odds heavily stacked against them.

“Obviously, Dortmund are doing very well,” Großkreutz said, adding: “You just have to look at the pre-season games. They’re winning games with high margins against good opponents, so we’re warned. We’re big underdogs but that’s the charm of the DFB Pokal. You can always shock the favourite and we’ll do everything for that.”

“Dortmund were often enough in the German cup final. For Uerdingen, it would obviously a great story [to proceed to the next round]. Otherwise, I’ll always root for them.”