Borussia Dortmund maintain solid pre-season form after late Stade Rennes draw
Lucien Favre’s Borussia Dortmund side return from their tour of the United States and continued their solid pre-season form at the Cashpoint-Arena in Altach, only conceding a late penalty against French side Stade Rennes in the first of their final three fixtures before the start of the season.
Borussia Dortmund 1-1 Stade Rennes
Goals: 1-0 Piszczek (2’), 1-1 Del Castillo pen. (90’)
Dortmund made the perfect start to the night as they took the lead inside two minutes against their French opponents. Christian Pulisic’s corner found the head of Lukasz Piszczek, who had been left alone in the box to find the back of the net with the help of the crossbar. It was a flexibile side sent out by Favre, whose set-up started in a 4-2-3-1 formation but changed to a 4-4-2 before the end of the half. Marco Reus led the line, but it was Roman Bürki at the other end who had most to do. He made an outstanding save to deny Diafra Sakho from close range, with what was the best of many Rennes chances at the end of the first half.
The second half was a slow burner as both sides made a number of changes halfway through the final 45 minutes. Dortmund’s defence wasn’t beaten, with Abdou Diallo providing a superb performance throughout the game. Favre’s side failed to create another clear-cut chance before the end, and were made to pay in the final seconds as a cross to the back post hit the hand of Dzenis Burnic, and Romain Del Castillo sent Bürki the wrong way to end the game in a draw.
Watch: Christian Pulisic and Dortmund beat Liverpool in the US!
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Line-ups
Dortmund: Bürki – Piszczek (Hakimi 45'), Akanji (Zagadou 45'), Diallo, Schmelzer (Kagawa 67') – Sahin (Burnic 67'), Dahoud (Delaney 67'), Götze (Bruun Larsen 67') – Wolf (Gomez 67'), Reus (c) (Philipp 45'), Pulisic (Sancho 67')
Absentees: Weigl (groin)
Coach: Lucien Favre
Rennes: Koubek – Traore (Gerzino 81'), Gelin, Mexer (Danze 81'), Baal (Del Castillo 63') – Lea-Siliki, Andre (c) (Guitane 73') – Bourigeaud (Phoa 63'), Grenier (Maouassa 63'), Sarr (Bensebaini 63') – Sakho (Da Silva 45')
Coach: Sabri Lamouchi
Match stats
- Pulisic and Philipp both scored braces during games against Liverpool and Benfica respectively during the International Champions Cup in the USA.Favre coached Nice in France’s Ligue 1 last season, beating Rennes 1-0 and drawing the second meeting of last season 1-1.Thomas Delaney made his first appearance for Borussia Dortmund from the bench.Jordan Siebatcheu scored 17 goals in France’s Ligue 2 last season, before joining Rennes from Reims this summer.Dortmund and Rennes have never faced each other in a competitive fixture. Lukasz Pisczezk scored his first goal of Dortmund’s pre-season.
As it happened