Edin Terzic: “Haaland and Bellingham left… and we found ourselves”

“Unfortunately, you forgot about Davor Suker,” says Edin Terzic (Menden, 1982), smiling on the video conference screen, after hearing his interlocutor list the Real Madrid 1997-98 squad without mentioning the Osijek striker. Son of a Croatian mother and a Bosnian father, Terzic was a teenage Borussia Dortmund fan the first time the Ruhr club faced Madrid in the Champions League semifinals. The man, one of the most surprising revelations on the sidelines this season, carries the story engraved in his heart. This Saturday, he will lead Dortmund against Madrid in the final at Wembley.

Question: It is true: Suker, Redondo, Hierro, Roberto Carlos, Seedorf, Mijatovic, Raúl… Don’t you think the current Madrid squad is inferior in quality to that one?
Answer: I remember perfectly the day the goal broke. Dortmund then had a great team full of brilliant players and had just won the Champions League the previous season. Comparing teams separated by 20 years is very difficult. I hear people say that football has become faster, more physical, more tactical and technical, but if you go back and look at the Madrid-Barça classics of 2004 or 2005, you see that this pace and level have existed for a long time. I would analyze the Madrid of the last decade: they have won five Champions League titles and have been in a transformation phase for some time.

P: How do you explain Madrid’s way of competing, having drawn three out of the six knockout games they played, won one on penalties, and won two others after the referees disallowed goals to their opponents in controversial situations?
A: With the departure of Cristiano and Benzema, they lost very important players. But they have done something that no one else in the football world has managed to do as well: a generational transition. They still have experienced players like Modric and Kroos, but with the young talents they have gathered, it seems like they can compete at the same level in the next decade.

P: Madrid won the last eight Champions League finals they played. Don’t you think this is the most unequal final in recent history?
A: I congratulate Madrid for the last eight, but the only thing that matters to me now is that they don’t win the next one. Unequal or not, it is a single game, and if there is a team that has shown that anything is possible in 90 minutes, it is this Dortmund. The good thing is that for us, it is not a mission: missions are completed or failed. For us, it is a dream, and dreams make you excited and fight.

P: How to gain a psychological advantage in your favor?
A: It is our role: we are facing a team that has the experience of playing and winning finals, that knows what it is like to lift a Champions League trophy. That is their history. The good thing is that for us, it is not a mission: missions are completed or failed. For us, it is a dream, and dreams make you excited and fight. We want to make June 1st an unforgettable day for our club and our fans. If Madrid has more experience, we have to have more hunger.

P: City and Leipzig prevented Toni Kroos from thinking when receiving the ball and ended up controlling the game. Is pressuring Kroos touching Madrid’s weak point?
A: We know the quality of Kroos. But reducing Madrid’s potential to Toni Kroos is not fair. He is an extraordinary player who plays a significant part in their game because he moves the ball from the first third of the field to the second, and from the second to the final third. But Modric can do it too. And also Bellingham, and Camavinga and Tchouameni in their own style, of course. I am sure City tried to prevent Kroos from making decisions because it is something that Madrid’s opponents have been doing for years, but that did not prevent them from winning four Champions Leagues. If we focus only on Kroos and free up the others, spaces will open up, they will take the ball to the wings, have one-on-one situations, or pass behind our defenders. That’s what they are good at.

This is Madrid’s greatest quality: you don’t see them coming. It seems like you have everything under control, and ten seconds later, they have scored a goal, a penalty has been awarded, or a red card has been shown out of nowhere. This power comes from their confidence.

P: Bayern followed Madrid’s lead, and the attacks became slow, and time passed until everything was decided in the last minute. Is the Bayern armistice scenario Madrid’s specialty?
A: If you look at the precedents, they have beaten very powerful teams and have done it with completely different styles and approaches. They have known how to score twice in the first five minutes and then break on the counter; and they have also been prepared to defend in their area as they did against City, then breaking with a single movement, in an action that you don’t see coming. This is their greatest quality: you don’t see them coming. It seems like you have everything under control, and ten seconds later, they have scored a goal, a penalty has been awarded, or a red card has been shown out of nowhere. This power comes from their confidence: they know they are ready. In the first leg against Bayern, there was a clear opportunity for Sané after 30 seconds, and if you look at what Madrid did immediately after, it defines them: they don’t just kick the ball, they pass it feeling secure, with quality, and produce a counterattack. It is a test of experience. That’s what we are up against.

P: Today, top teams play to press high. Have you thought that Madrid is the one that does it the least?
A: Ancelotti has been very intelligent in understanding what best suits his team. He has very fast players, and I don’t think the smartest idea for them is to press high continuously as it would end up neutralizing Vinicius, Bellingham, or Rodrygo’s fifth gear. If you only recover the ball in the opponent’s area, you will never see Vinicius’ speed.

P: Is it a dilemma for you to decide whether to press them or wait for them and let time pass?
A: As a coach, I have to have a toolbox with everything. We have to be ready to slow down the game and speed it up; to play wide and defend inside; to defend against counterattacks and run them down. The history of the game will tell us what we need, but we have to be ready for everything. It will be very intense. That’s for sure. If you look at the last four finals, they all ended 1-0. Very tight. One mistake, maybe two, decided them. We have to think that what we face may possibly be a replay of a game we have already played: in Munich against Bayern; in Paris against PSG; in Madrid against Atlético, where we conceded two goals in the first 15 minutes and had to get back into the fight… We didn’t start preparing for this final two weeks ago; we started 50 weeks ago in the preseason. The good and bad experiences we have gathered in the Bundesliga and the Champions League will help us be ready in London.

Ancelotti has been very intelligent in understanding what best suits his team. He has very fast players, and I don’t think the smartest idea for them is to press high continuously. If you only recover the ball in the opponent’s area, you will never see Vinicius.

P: In 2022 you sold Haaland, in 2023 you sold Bellingham, and now you are playing the final. How do you explain that?
A: Playing as a team. That is our style. We would love to have Haaland and Bellingham with us, but this is our reality. These players left Dortmund because they believed they would have more opportunities to win the Champions League elsewhere. To replace Haaland, we had to replace his 42 goals. Last season we did it, not with a new number nine, because Haller got sick, but with Guerreiro and Bellingham. Between the two, they helped us score those 42 goals. And last year, Bellingham went to Madrid and Guerreiro to Bayern. That’s how we do things! To get here, you either spend a lot of money, make all the right market decisions, or take time. This is what has put us in this situation: we have found ourselves; we have found the source of energy within the team. For many months, we were not ready to win every game we played, but now we are ready to beat anyone.

P: In Madrid, some people repeat that Bellingham is the best player in the world, and some compare him to Zidane or Schuster. What kind of player do you think he is?
A: I love Jude very much. We spent many years together, and it was an absolute pleasure to work with him. Zidane marked my life as a fan and was one of the best players of all time. I’m not sure if I would compare Jude to these two. But I do know that Jude is one of the best in the world and is so young that he will be up there for the next decade. I said it when he was 19: ‘he is the oldest 19-year-old on the planet.’ We haven’t seen the best of him yet.

P: Last year, Dortmund lost the Bundesliga on the last matchday against Mainz, and Bellingham remained on the bench. It was rumored that you didn’t give him a single minute because he had already been transferred for over 100 million euros, and Florentino Pérez asked your president not to risk his health. Is that true?
A: He was injured in the knee and couldn’t play. I told him to put on his kit and sit on the bench because if we won and had to lift the trophy, I wanted him to be close to his teammates. If he celebrated, he should do it with his boots on and not in a tracksuit.

You can’t simulate the quality of Mbappé or Vinicius in training. We know we are going to lose duels. Hummels knows: he is going to lose a duel. But if that happens, he has to be sure that someone behind him will be watching his back. With that certainty, he must go all out in every one-on-one.

P: Last year, you played three center-backs to protect Hummels, and now that he plays alongside Schlötterbeck, Hummels seems unleashed…
A: When you defend with eleven, it doesn’t matter if you have two or three center-backs. That sense of solidarity means there will always be players who recover the ball, or win time for others, or share the pressure. If you are compact, full of energy and empathy, you can defend with four, five, or three at the back. Mats was never the fastest with his feet, but he was always one of the fastest with his mind, and if you see things before they happen, you can react more quickly than anyone. That’s his great weapon.

P: Against PSG, Hummels always knew which side Mbappé would come from in the one-on-one, and that’s how he stole the ball. Is that something that is trained or innate?
A: It is experience in big games and preparation. He analyzes everything and studies each of his direct opponents very well. My only wish is that he does it one more time before the season ends. You can’t simulate the quality of Mbappé or Vinicius in training. The most important thing we need to know is that we are going to lose duels. Mats knows: he is going to lose a duel. But if that happens, he also has to be sure that someone behind him will be watching his back. With that certainty, he must go all out in every one-on-one. Because if he goes all out, Mats will win many balls for us. And when he doesn’t win them, someone else will. That’s what you need to build confidence. If Vinicius wins the first duel? Okay. And let him win the second, and the third, and the fourth. But then we will win the ball. If, as a center-back, you adopt this mental scheme, your confidence will be strengthened. This is how you end up making the best decisions.

P: They say your strength is psychology. How did you recover Jadon Sancho, who seemed like a useless player at United in December and is now an undisputed starter in a Champions League finalist?
A: I have to be a psychologist! As a coach, you have to bring out the best in each person, and you can only do this if you help them, challenge them, even annoy them. Jadon is young and special, and special players must be given special things. I would love to be just a coach, but in this profession, sometimes you have to be a big brother, sometimes a friend, teacher, or judge! You have to make sure you can play all these roles, but you always have to be more of a coach than a judge. Jadon is brilliant, and I am happy he is with us. At Wembley, he can show that when he returned to Dortmund at Christmas, he made the right decision.

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