Jadon Sancho shines as Borussia Dortmund beat Fortuna Düsseldorf
Borussia Dortmund started 2018 on the front foot with a dominant display to beat Bundesliga 2 high-flyers Fortuna Düsseldorf 2-0 in a friendly on Saturday.
Fortuna Düsseldorf 0-2 Borussia Dortmund
Goals: 0-1 Isak (71'), 0-2 Kagawa (84')
Dortmund immediately looked to show who was boss in the early stages and controlled possession with apparent ease. Yet for all their dominance, Peter Stöger's side struggled to carve out chances against a well-drilled Düsseldorf defence. Indeed, the Bundesliga 2 side should have broken the deadlock when Benito Raman profited from a defensive mix-up to go through on goal, only to fire wide. At the other end of the pitch, English teenager Jadon Sancho - making his full debut for BVB - had his side's best opportunity late on but fired straight at the goalkeeper from 12 yards.
It was one-way traffic towards the Düsseldorf goal in the second period too, and although Friedhelm Funkel's charges initially put up good resistance once more, they were eventually undone when Alexander Isak tapped in following good work from Andrey Yarmolenko. The Ukrainian was involved in Dortmund's second goal as well, skipping away from his marker on the right to set up the excellent Shinji Kagawa for an easy finish.
Line-ups
Fortuna Düsseldorf:: Wiesner – Zimmer (Schauerte 46'), Ayhan (Gül 46'), Hoffmann (Bormuth 46'), Schmitz (Gießelmann 46') – Neuhaus (Fink 46'), Sobottka (Bodzek 60') – Raman (Kiesewetter 46'), Nielsen (Duman 6'), Lovren (Usami 46') – Kujovic (Hennings 46', Majic 82')
Absentees: Rensing (hip)
Coach: Friedhelm Funkel
Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller (Reimann 46') – Toljan (Durm 60'), Sokratis (Toprak 46'), Subotic, Guerreiro (Bartra 11') – Dahoud (Isak 46'), Sahin (Weigl 46') - Sancho, Kagawa, Yarmolenko - Schürrle
Substitutes: Reimann, Toprak, Weigl, Durm, Bartra, Isak
Absentees: Bürki (cold), Schmelzer (calf), Pulisic (shin), Reus (match fitness), Götze (ankle), Piszczek (match fitness), Castro (ankle), Philipp (knee), Aubameyang, Zagadou (individual training)
Coach: Peter Stöger
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Match stats
- Aubameyang, who was crowned third-best player in Africa on Thursday night, has scored 13 Bundesliga goals this season, second only to Bayern's Robert Lewandowski (15).Stöger has won both Bundesliga games as Dortmund head coach, but ended 2017 with a 2-1 defeat to Bayern in the DFB Cup.Dortmund begin the Rückrunde with a home fixture against Wolfsburg on Matchday 18.Pulisic was recently crowned USA Player of the Year.Düsseldorf have picked up 34 points from 18 Bundesliga 2 games this season and top the division by a point; at this stage last term , Fortuna had only 25 points to their name.No second-tier side has picked up more than Düsseldorf's 10 league wins this term.Only Holstein Kiel (three) have lost fewer games than Fortuna (four) this season.
As it happened