With Erling Haaland set to return to Borussia Dortmund for the first time on Tuesday with new side Manchester City, the hole the striker left behind is plain to see.
While Dortmund moved to plug their leaky defence in the off-season by bringing in likely Germany World Cup centre-back pairing Nico Schlotterbeck and Niklas Suele, the team has struggled up front since the giant Norwegian’s departure.
Haaland scored 86 goals in 89 games in all competitions with Dortmund and has hit the ground running in England.
In the Premier League alone this season, Haaland has scored 17 goals in just 11 appearances with City. That figure is just one less than Dortmund’s entire season tally of 18 in the Bundesliga — five of which were scored in Saturday’s domination of managerless Stuttgart.
The Stuttgart game, however, may show a way forward for Dortmund, by encouraging them to rely more heavily on their troupe of talented teenagers.
Dortmund’s three best players in their dominant 5-0 home win over Stuttgart — Englishman Jude Bellingham, American Gio Reyna and German Youssoufa Moukoko — have a combined age of 55 and scored four of the side’s five goals.
Bellingham has been Dortmund’s most important player this season, having played every minute of every game other than a stint on the bench in Wednesday’s Cup game against Hannover.
Bellingham’s game has gone to another level since being named Dortmund captain in early October, having scored five goals in the club’s past six games — including in every Champions League game this season. “The biggest part of leadership is that you lead by example with your performance first and foremost,” he told uefa.com.
With Haaland’s replacement Sebastien Haller still undergoing treatment for testicular cancer and usual captain Marco Reus fighting ankle issues, the return of Reyna, 19, has been timely for Dortmund. Reyna offers Dortmund a creative outlet they have not had since the departure of Jadon Sancho.
With City already qualified, a win for Dortmund on Tuesday or in their final match away against FC Copenhagen would see them through to the knockout rounds.
Koulibaly ruled out
Kalidou Koulibaly will sit out Chelsea’s clash against Salzburg with a knee injury that saw him miss Manchester United’s visit. Koulibaly was not named in Chelsea’s 21- man squad that travelled on Monday to face Salzburg.
The defender missed Chelsea’s last match against United on Saturday with a knee injury picked up against Brentford and he has been sidelined again with the issue.
The Senegal captain has settled fairly swiftly at Stamford Bridge, despite competition for places being high when all of Chelsea’s defenders are fully fit.
He has played in eight of their 13 Premier League matches so far, missing one game via suspension due to a red card.
Koulibaly joins a number of key players on the sidelines for the Blues with Reece James, N’Golo Kante and Wesley Fofana all out for extended spells.
Manager Graham Potter has offered a positive update: “It’s not too serious but this game was too soon for him.”
Luka Modric will miss Real Madrid’s match against Leipzig.
According to Real Madrid’s official website, the 37-yearold midfielder was originally selected for the squad to travel to Germany to play the fixture. However, Modric has pulled out of the squad at the last minute and will now not travel.
No reason has been specified as to why the Croatian will not play.
Written with inputs from uefa.com
