The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Borussia Dortmund.

  • Bayer Leverkusen ease past Fortuna to maintain winning start

    Bayer Leverkusen scored three times in the first half to ease past hosts Fortuna Duesseldorf 3-1 on Saturday.

    The victory put Leverkusen alongside leaders Borussia Dortmund with maximum points from their first two Bundesliga matches.

    A sixth-minute own goal from Lewis Baker put the visitors ahead and Charles Aranguiz added another goal in the 33rd.

    His effort was initially ruled out for a suspected handball but following a video replay the goal stood.

    Kevin Volland, who was also involved in the first goal, set up Karim Bellarabi for their third goal six minutes later.

    Fortuna cut the deficit in the 82nd with Alfredo Morales.

    Read Also: Bayern level points with Dortmund

    Freiburg are also on six points after coming from a goal down to beat promoted Paderborn 3-1.

    Borussia Moenchengladbach, on four points, did the same for a 3-1 victory at Mainz 05.

    Dortmund beat Cologne 3-1 on Friday to lead the standings on goal difference. Champions Bayern Munich, on one point, take on Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen later on Saturday.

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  • Dortmund massacre Freiburg to mount pressure on Bayern

    Borussia Dortmund eased past Freiburg 4-0 on Sunday with goals from Jadon Sancho, Marco Reus, Mario Gotze and Paco Alcacer, to stay a point behind leaders Bayern Munich with four games left in the Bundesliga season.

    England international Sancho tapped in from close range for the visitors in the 12th minute and Reus completed another fine move in the 54th to score his 16th goal of the season.

    Read Also: Bolt looking forward to Borussia Dortmund trial

    The pair then combined to set up Gotze for their third in the 79th and Dortmund’s top scorer Alcacer made it 4-0 with an 87th minute penalty, his 17th league goal.

    The result kept Dortmund, on 69 points, within striking distance of Bayern, who are top on 70 after their 1-0 victory over Werder Bremen on Saturday.

    RB Leipzig are in third place on 61, nine points clear of fourth-placed Eintracht Frankfurt.

  • Bayern crush Dortmund to take lead in Bundesliga title race

    Champions Bayern Munich dismantled Bundesliga title rivals Borussia Dortmund 5-0 on Saturday, scoring four goals in a flawless first half to reclaim top spot and get back on course for a record-extending seventh straight league crown.

    Bayern exploded into action and scored twice in the opening 17 minutes through Mats Hummels and Robert Lewandowski, adding two more from Javi Martinez and Serge Gnabry before the interval.

    Lewandowski’s strike meant he became only the fifth player in Bundesliga history to reach the 200-goal mark and the first foreigner to do so.

    Robert Lewandowski celebrates his 200th Bundesliga goal during the win against Borussia Dortmund.

    The hosts, who drew 1-1 at Freiburg last week, stepped off the gas after the break and controlled the game before Lewandowski scored again in the 89th minute and Bayern moved up to 64 points with six matches remaining, one point clear of Dortmund.

    The first chance, however, fell to Dortmund with Mo Dahoud hitting the post after a lightning quick break.

    But that was the last Dortmund attack for a long time, with a glancing header by Hummels putting the host ahead in the 10th minute and highlighting their aerial superiority.

    Things got worse for Dortmund when Dan-Axel Zagadou’s back pass fell to Lewandowski in the 17th and the Bundesliga’s leading scorer chipped it over keeper Roman Burki and volleyed in.

    Poland’s Lewandowski, who has scored 21 in the league this season, was the first player to break the 200-goal milestone since 1987.

    Buerki had to rescue his team again when Hummels and Lewandowski beat the Dortmund defenders in the air.

    The keeper denied Thomas Muller from close range in the 41st minute but could do nothing to stop Martinez’s rebound that put the hosts 3-0 up.

    Gnabry added another to kill off any hopes of a comeback by Dortmund, who badly missed their injured top scorer Paco Alcacer.

    Lewandowski notched his 21st goal of the season and 201st in the Bundesliga to put the cherry on top of a big win for Bayern which made them title favourites once more.

  • Wasteful Bayern stumble in title race as Dortmund win late

    Champions Bayern Munich stumbled to a 1-1 draw at Freiburg to hand the Bundesliga top spot back to Borussia Dortmund, who beat Wolfsburg 2-0.

    Bayern, who had won 13 of their previous 14 league games, cancelled out Lucas Hoeler’s third minute goal with Robert Lewandowski’s 199th Bundesliga goal in the 22nd minute.

    Read also: Rashford, Martial give sloppy Manchester United win over Watford

    But the Poland striker’s sensational volley was not enough and he wasted a bagful of golden scoring chances in the second half, including a point blank header, and even hit the woodwork in stoppage time.

    Bayern are on 61 points, two behind Dortmund whom they will meet next week.

  • ‘Kagawa set to join Besiktas on loan’

    Borussia Dortmund’s Japanese international midfielder Shinji Kagawa is set to join Besiktas on loan for the rest of the season, according to Turkish media reports on Thursday.

    The 29-year-old former Manchester United player had reportedly been a target of struggling French club Monaco but it now appears he could spend the rest of the season in Istanbul.

    News agency DHA and sports daily Fanatik reported that he arrived in the city on Thursday to complete a six-month loan in a deal that gives the club the option to buy the player.

    Kagawa helped Dortmund win the German league and cup double in 2012 before spending two years at United, then returned to the German club in 2014, but has fallen out of favour under coach Lucien Favre.

  • Chelsea sign Pulisic from Borussia Dortmund

    Chelsea has signed Christian Pulisic from Borussia Dortmund but the American playmaker will spend the rest of the season on loan at the Bundesliga side, the German club announced on Wednesday.

    The English Premier League club paid 64 million euros ($73.2 million) for the 20-year-old, Borussia Dortmund said in a statement.

    “It has always been Christian’s big dream to play in the English Premier League,” Borussia Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc said.

    “This certainly has something to do with his American origin and thus we were not able to prolong his contract.

    “Because of this background and with his contract running down in 2020, we decided to accept Chelsea’s incredibly lucrative offer.

    NAN

  • Dortmund bus bomber sentence to 14 years in prison

    The man who attacked Borussia Dortmund’s bus with a bomb has been found guilty of 28 counts of attempted murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

    A court in Dortmund convicted the man, a dual German-Russian national known as Sergej W, on Tuesday for the attack carried out on April 11, 2017 when the German side was in the road to a Champions League clash against Monaco.

    The explosion occurred shortly after the players commence on their journey from their hotel and left centre-back Marc Bartra needing surgery on a fractured wrist and shrapnel in his arm.

    A police officer was also injured in the attack, but no other Dortmund players or members of staff were hurt, though Bartra described the incident as: “the longest 15 minutes of my life”.

    Read Also: Bolt looking forward to Borussia Dortmund trial

    The culprit admitted to making and setting off three bombs in the attack, but he has denied that he tried to kill anyone in the process.

    The bombing was part of a money-making scheme.

    On the day of the attack, the 29-year-old bought 15,000 shares worth €44,000 with the expectation that the club’s stock price would plummet and allow him to sell them on for a large profit.

    Instead, the share price rose in the wake of the attack.

  • Moenchengladbach extend coach Hecking’s contract

    Borussia Moenchengladbach has extended the contract of coach Dieter Hecking by a year to 2020 after a strong start to the season for the Foals, who now sit second in the league.

    Moenchengladbach, who Hecking joined almost two years ago, have had their best start to a season in recent years with seven wins and only two losses from their first 11 games.

    “The current sporting development is very positive and it is very closely tied to Dieter Hecking.

    Read Also: Thiago Alcantara nets debut goal as Bayern Munich brush aside Borussia Moenchengladbach

    “So we are delighted to tackle our future tasks together with him,” Moenchengladbach sports director Max Eberl said in a statement.

    The 54-year-old has also coached Nuremberg and Hanover 96 among other teams in the Bundesliga.

    Moenchengladbach are on 23 points, four behind leaders Borussia Dortmund, and have the league’s second-strongest attack with 26 goals. They host Hanover in the Bundesliga on Sunday.

  • Wenger to take late call on Aubameyang for Everton clash

    Wenger to take late call on Aubameyang for Everton clash

    Arsenal will assess Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s fitness before deciding if the striker can make his debut for the club in Saturday’s premier league clash with Everton, the club’s Manager Arsene Wenger has said.

    The London club bolstered their forward line by signing the Gabon international from Borussia Dortmund for a club-record fee on Wednesday, but Aubameyang, 28, did not fully participate in Thursday’s training session due to a fever.“ I have to assess how well he is physically today and how well he feels. He had a fever, so he could not practise a lot.

    Read Also: Party Claims: Wenger  opens Iwobi investigation

    “He started yesterday; he was still not completely well. I have to assess with the medical department how fit he can be,” Wenger told a news conference on Friday.

    The manager said that he would take a late call on midfielder Jack Wilshere, who is also unwell.

    “We hope he is capable of being in the squad; he is better. He will practise with the team today, and we will see how he feels,” Wenger added.

    The manager said that Armenian midfielder, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, another of Arsenal’s recruits in the January transfer window, is in line to start against ninth-placed Everton.

    Wenger, however, kept his cards close to his chest when asked if the attacking quartet of Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan, Mesut Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette could play together on Saturday.

    “It’s always possible. Will I do it? Maybe; I don’t know, but it is possible; yes.

    “You need at least two top strikers to play in the premier league because if one gets injured, you have a problem,” he said.

    Arsenals are sixth in the table with 42 points from 25 games.

    NAN

  • Batshuayi settles down with Borussia Dortmund

    Batshuayi settles down with Borussia Dortmund

     

    Michy Batshuayi has completed his first training session with Borussia Dortmund following his arrival from Chelsea on loan as a replacement for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has joined Arsenal.

    The Belgian striker completed the final piece of a three-way transfer merry-go-round on transfer deadline day with Olivier Giroud joining Chelsea from the Gunners in an £18million move.

    And he was thrust straight into action with his new team-mates as he pulled on a training bib and strutted his stuff ahead of a potential debut in Dortmund’s next game against Cologne on Friday.

    ‘In order to reach my big goal, I want to play as much as I can and score many goals. In summer, the World Cup takes place,’ said the 24-year-old following the transfer.

    BVB sporting director Michael Zorc said: ‘Michy is a young, very interesting striker, who impresses with a high scoring and his extraordinary at both Chelsea and in Marseille, in the Belgian league and the national team quality has already proved.’

    Antonio Conte has been desperate to replace Batshuayi with another striker this January, with Chelsea chasing Roma’s Edin Dzeko, Andy Carroll of West Ham and even 37-year-old Stoke star Peter Crouch before sealing a move for Olivier Giroud.

    Batshuayi joined Chelsea in the summer of 2016 for £33million but he failed to win a regular first-team spot, and Conte was clearly never convinced by the 24-year-old Belgium international.

    Batshuayi arrived at Dortmund as a replacement for Aubameyang, who completed his deadline-day move to Arsenal, who can now release Giroud to Chelsea.

    As Alvaro Morata continues to recover from a back injury, Chelsea trained on Tuesday with Batshuayi involved in case his Dortmund move broke down and he was needed for the game against Bournemouth on Wednesday night.

    Conte has urged the Premier League to avoid a clash between fixtures and deadline day in the future. ‘To have this situation with Batshuayi in the balance is not easy. We don’t make excuses, there is no alibi. The game tomorrow won’t be easy for us.

    ‘This is not right. To have a match when there is a transfer deadline is not right. To have players who are staying half-and-half…in the future the fixture-makers need to reflect and prepare this kind of situation. Many coaches do not like to have a game when there is the deadline.’