Our Gladbach fan reporter will be glad to see the back of Guardiola – but not if he’s wearing that coat

I was torn from sleep the morning after the match, immediately trying to remember what I’d just witnessed in my dreams. I vaguely remembered someone’s profile. He was wearing a black coat with a giant emblem on the back; it looked glamorous but, at the same, mysterious. Scary, even. It was no dream – it was a nightmare.  

Up to now there have been few instances of poor sleep after Gladbach’s performances in the Champions League. But, suddenly, there is that person getting angry on the touchline…

Suddenly I was wide awake. Of course – it was Pep Guardiola. But looking at it in the cold light of day, what was he really furious about? His team is living the dream. I also questioned why I was frightened of his coat. Was it that emblem or was it the sheer size of it? I realised that it was not the logo itself, but the club it represented. Knowing what had happened in Gladbach over the last few weeks, facing Manchester City was the last thing we needed.  

Not long before the round of 16 kicked off, our coach Marco Rose announced he would leave Gladbach for Dortmund next season. Many fans declared that our club – a recently blooming rose in European football, drawing strength from fertile history – was about to wither on the vine. But we have always shown that we are bigger than a coach, bigger than a single person. It reminds us to never be scared of challenging moments, as long as we keep fighting together.  

Nightmares happen, so we should not let them become a trauma. I am confident that we will use the second leg to show what our own emblem means to us. Rose surely has some fancy coats in his wardrobe too. This time, hopefully, it will be us stealing the show.