Dortmund full of confidence at Club World Cup
Daniel Svensson says Borussia Dortmund has "plenty of confidence" after finishing top of Group F at the FIFA Club World Cup.
Svensson's goal secured a narrow 1-0 victory over Ulsan HD in Dortmund's final group game, taking it to seven points and setting up a meeting with Group E runner-up Monterrey.
The Swede netted the winner in the 36th minute, latching on to Jobe Bellingham's lay-off to slot a low shot under Jo Hyeon-Woo's outstretched leg.
It was because of the goalkeeper that Dortmund could not record a more emphatic victory, as he made 10 saves throughout to keep it down to 1-0.
He made a trio of first-half saves to deny Serhou Guirassy as well as a superb stop to deny Yan Couto late on.
Svensson says Dortmund can take a lot of positives from its unbeaten group stage and expects the team to keep improving as the knockout rounds begin.
"Overall, it was a good performance. Especially in the first half, where we dominated," he said.
"It was a deserved win. For our goal, I just took a run into the box, Jobe Bellingham played me in, and then I just tried to finish as fast as possible. It was a very nice feeling to score.
"We have plenty of confidence. We have been performing better and better. We started off a little bit slow, but I think today it was an overall good performance, so we are confident going into the next round."
Julian Brandt was not as upbeat as his team-mate about the Black and Yellow's recent performances, though, insisting it has big improvements to make before facing Monterrey.
"We didn't exactly play lights-out football in all three games, but that's okay," Brandt said.
"I think there's still a lot of room for improvement, and that's a good thing, because hopefully, we've still got a few games ahead of us.
"The result was a bit underwhelming. We really need to learn how to score more goals. Unfortunately, we were a bit too careless in front of goal. We need to handle that role a bit better.
"I think we could've done better with the chances we had and maybe been a bit more clinical. Then I think it would've worked out more convincingly."
Fluminense is also through to the knockout stage, finishing second in Group E after a 0-0 draw with Mamelodi Sundowns.
It needed to avoid defeat to go through, and its progress means that all four Brazilian clubs have made it out of the group stage. A meeting with Serie A giant Inter Milan awaits in the next round.
