(Football news) On the opening day of play, Edin Terzic’s team was defeated by Paris Saint-Germain 2-0, while the Rossoneri were held to a 0-0 draw with Newcastle United and left to regret numerous opportunities that they could have taken advantage of.
Few teams have left PSG’s stadium with memorable victories to brag about before the Parc des Princes stronghold is attacked in 2023, but Dortmund was not one of them because they were defeated by Les Parisiens’ superiority a fortnight ago. As a result, Dortmund was unable to join that select club.
Niklas Sule’s handball gave Kylian Mbappe the chance to score from 12 yards just four minutes into the second half, and before the hour mark, former Dortmund winger Achraf Hakimi handed his former club a 2-0 opening defeat.
With plenty of continental football still to be played, BVB’s loss in the French capital ended a 13-game unbeaten streak in all competitions. However, they have bounced back nicely from their opening Champions League loss with victories over Wolfsburg and Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga.
Ramy Bensebaini was foolishly sent off against Hoffenheim for kicking the ball away while already on a yellow card, but Niclas Fullkrug’s first BVB goal, Marco Reus’s improvised goal, and Julian Ryerson’s incredible solo run all helped Dortmund extend their domestic unbeaten streak, moving them up to fourth in the newly formed Bundesliga table.
However, Dortmund welcome Milan to their stadium with just one clean sheet to their name from their last six games, despite home shutouts in the Champions League being commonplace; the German giants have allowed just one goal in their last five continental games at Signal Iduna Park. Andrej Kramaric also made the net ripple from 12 yards.
Milan had numerous opportunities to win their match against Newcastle, who were making their Champions League comeback, two weeks ago, but Stefano Pioli’s team was unable to overcome their own wastefulness, the tenacious defence of the Magpies, or Nick Pope’s heroics to get off to the best possible start in Europe.
Milan had a total of 25 opportunities, but that was not enough to wear out their English opponents. However, just like Dortmund, the Rossoneri have made up for their European missteps at home by winning their past three Serie A games.
The San Siro audience witnessed another scoreless first half during Lazio’s visit on Saturday, but two Rafael Leao cutbacks for Noah Okafor and Christian Pulisic did the damage in the second half, putting the second-place Rossoneri equal on points with the top-seeded Inter Milan.
Pioli’s men have only managed two goals in their last 540 minutes of Champions League play, and they have failed to score in each of their last three high-level continental contests. Pioli’s men have only managed one goal all season, a 0-0 draw with Newcastle, but due to their relatively uneventful knockout games last year, they now have just two goals to show for it.
The interesting matchup between Milan and Dortmund on Wednesday will be their first competitive encounter since the 2002–03 group stage, when the Rossoneri won 1-0 in Germany thanks to a goal from Filippo Inzaghi, and the BVB avenged that loss at San Siro owing to a goal from Jan Koller.
