During Dortmund’s 3-2 victory on Sunday, Karim Ademi stood near the substitutes’ bench with an angry expression while his teammates celebrated the third goal in front of the famous Südtribüne. Ademi placed his right hand on his waist, held a bottle in his other hand, and muttered something under his breath. Initially, team manager Sebastian Kehl approached him, followed by captain Emre Can, who tried to calm him down. During the conversation, Ademi raised his voice and later threw the bottle toward the bench. As the halftime whistle blew, he quickly headed toward the locker room. Television cameras did not capture this incident.

Kovac’s Discussions with Ademi

This was not the first time Ademi caused controversy during the match. Earlier, head coach Niko Kovac had several serious conversations with Ademi: The first occurred around the 34th minute when Maximilian Beier was injured and Karne Chukwuemeka came on as a substitute. Seven minutes later, during the equalizing 1-1 goal, the two engaged in another heated discussion. What caused this tension? Poor positioning? Tactical disagreements?

Kovac addressed the issue in the post-match press conference when questioned by Sport1: “I won’t discuss this with you. We will analyze these matters in our team meeting. There are always details. You know how it is. A coach is never completely satisfied. We won, and we’re happy about that, but there were both positives and areas for improvement in this match that we need to work on.”