Borussia Dortmund are not a top side at the moment but do have ambitions, captain Emre Can has said in the run-up to Wednesday's Champions League quarter-final first leg match at Barcelona.
Can said in an interview with Monday's edition of Kicker sports magazine that they are "not a top team. But we are a big club which has the ambition to win titles."
The 1997 Champions League winners last topped the Bundesliga in 2012 and their last trophy overall was the German Cup in 2021.
Dortmund reached the Champions League final last year and are now again among the last eight, while they have underperformed in the Bundesliga where they finished fifth last season and are placed eighth now after winning their last two games.
Can, 31, said the mixed domestic results were not due to "a general attitude problem" but at the same time "I can't rule out that a player sometimes thinks that today 99% are enough in the Bundesliga.
"But that is not the case, the league is too strong for that," Can said.
The German international said players "maybe trust the team-mate too much instead of doing three more steps themselves. This thinking must change. In every match."
Defender and midfielder Can has been at Dortmund since January 2020 and is their captain since 2023.
His contract runs until 2026, but he said he is focussing on the upcoming matches rather than his personal future.
"Of course, everyone thinks about how things could go in the future, but for me it's not a pressing issue at the moment," he said.
"At some point, the time will come when we sit down together and talk openly about how things could go on. I'm very relaxed about that."
