Peter Stoger Urges Borussia Dortmund to Win Fans Back Following Bayern Mauling

Borussia Dortmund manager Peter Stoger has called for his team to unite and bounce back from the 6-0 mauling at the hands of Bayern Munich in order to get the fans back on board.

Dortmund's ambitions of qualifying for next season's Champions League will be handed a major boost should they overcome Stuttgart on Sunday. However, the soul destroying defeat at the hands of the Bavarian giants has the club's fans fearing the worst ahead of their derby at Schalke later in the month. 

With cracks in the fan base emerging, Stoger was quick to encourage solidarity across all levels of the club as Dortmund move to within just six games of the end of their Bundesliga season. 

"We need to stick together in this fragile situation," Stoger said in his pre-match press conference, via ESPN.

"We must give the supporters the feeling that it's also important for us to play for the Champions League spots to get the stadium on board.

"We are well aware of these things, and these are things we want to tackle during the run-in."

Having stressed the importance of pulling together to achieve the club's goals, Stoger added: "At least I have the impression that the different groups are coming together."

Whilst the 51-year-old conceded they had "never calculated for the three points" against Bayern, the Dortmund boss is confident his side can respond to the defeat in similar fashion to that of their campaign in the Europa League - having overcome both Eintracht Frankfurt and Hannover on either side of their tie with RB Salzburg. 

"We've shown after matches in Europe that we can do it [bounce back]. We've shown that we are capable of getting results. What happened in Munich happened to other clubs too. That we are in the group is anything but nice, but we must take on the situation," he said.