Dortmund brimming with confidence after reaching Club World Cup knockouts

Daniel Svensson says Borussia Dortmund have "plenty of confidence" after finishing top of Group F at the Club World Cup.

Svensson's goal secured a narrow 1-0 victory over Ulsan HD in Dortmund's final group game, taking them to seven points and setting up a meeting with Group E runners-up Monterrey.

The Swede netted the winner in the 36th minute, latching onto Jobe Bellingham's lay-off to slot a low shot under Jo Hyeon-Woo's outstretched leg.

And 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 their 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."

Dortmund had 28 shots against Ulsan, registering 3.4 expected goals (xG), with 11 of their efforts on target in a dominant performance.

They had six big chances, with Svensson taking his, though Guirassy was unable to take any of the three that fell his way, even as he contributed 1.2 xG to Dortmund's total.

Julian Brandt was not as upbeat as his team-mate about the Black and Yellow's recent performances, though, insisting they have big improvements to make before facing Monterrey on July 2.

"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 are also through to the knockout stage, finishing second in Group E after a 0-0 draw with Mamelodi Sundowns.

They needed to avoid defeat to go through, and their progress means that all four Brazilian clubs have made it out of the group stage. A meeting with Serie A giants Inter awaits them in the next round.

In fact, Fluminense qualified with the best defence in their group (two goals conceded). The Tricolor have kept a clean sheet in four of their last five matches across all competitions (W3 D2).