Trailing Inter Milan 2-0 at home with just 40 minutes remaining and contemplating an almost certain drop to the Europa League, Borussia Dortmund stormed back to a 3-2 victory with the Westfalenstadion roaring on its heroes, including 21-year-old breakthrough star Achraf Hakimi.
Some big news coming out of UEFA Youth League Group F on Wednesday — perhaps the biggest UEFA Youth League Group F news we’ve ever presented on the hallowed pages of The18: In the group’s early match, 18-year-old American winger Konrad de la Fuente scored two great goals as Barcelona thumped Slavia Prague 4-0. Later in the day, Inter Milan responded to Borussia Dortmund’s early goal with four unanswered, but that Dortmund opener was scored by Youssoufa Moukoko.
Inter Milan revived its hope of advancing to the Champions League Round of 16 with a much-needed 2-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund at the San Siro on Wednesday. Goals from the red-hot Lautaro Martínez and Antonio Candreva catapulted Inter up to second in Group F — three points behind leaders Barcelona — while Dortmund dropped to third.
Tuttosport officially narrowed its Golden Boy (best young player under 21) shortlist to 40 candidates, and before the list gets any smaller I thought it’d be fun to rank the candidates who I believe will end up in the top 10.
After sitting on the bench in Euro qualifying for Germany over the recent international break, Marc-André ter Stegen expressed frustration in being stuck behind Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer in the pecking order to be Germany’s No. 1. After watching Ter Stegen vs Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday, it’s hard to argue he shouldn’t usurp Neuer.
Ter Stegen made four saves, including one on a penalty kick and a massive double save to help Barcelona draw Borussia Dortmund 0-0 in the Champions League group-stage opener for both clubs on Tuesday in Dortmund.
108 days after Liverpool lifted the Champions League trophy in Madrid, we’re set to do it all over again with a competition that’ll reach its conclusion on May 30 in Istanbul. Matchday one begins tomorrow (Tuesday, Sept. 17) with a couple massive group stage encounters before carrying through to Wednesday with a couple more.
Below, we’ll highlight those four games while also breaking down the Champions League TV schedule on TNT.
Tuesday, September 17
Paco Alcácer has fit in quite nicely at Borussia Dortmund since leaving Barcelona. The Spanish striker has scored 27 goals in 37 games and found his way back to the Spanish national team with his performances.
But Alcácer has brought more than just goals to Dortmund (though he’s brought plenty of those); he’s brought an unselfish mentality for a striker that fits perfectly into BVB coach Lucien Favre’s style of play.
“I was really wasted.”
Those are the first words from Jürgen Klopp in Episode 3 of Inside Borussia Dortmund, Amazon Prime’s docuseries on the German club, which came out last week.
It only got better from the current Liverpool coach.
Borussia Dortmund suffered a shock defeat to Bundesliga newcomers Union Berlin on Saturday. Dortmund lined up with Julian Brandt, Marco Reus, Jadon Sancho and Paco Alcacer leading the attack; on paper, this match should be won by Dortmund every time.
But a win for Dortmund was not in the cards. Union struck first via Marius Bulter’s low strike. Alcacer equalized for Dortmund three minutes later to breathe some life back into the match.
Giovanni Reyna made quite an impression in his competitive debut with the Borussia Dortmund U-19 squad. It just wasn’t as good as his younger teammate.
Reyna, a 16-year-old American, scored in the first minute of Dortmund’s 9-2 win over Wuppertaler SV in the U-19 Bundesliga season opener on Sunday. His 14-year-old teammate, Youssoufa Moukoko, did even better, scoring six goals in his U-19 debut.