3-0 over Leeds United, BVB off to a flying start in PL Int'l Cup | OneFootball

While the professionals at home are preparing for the year's final match on Friday against Borussia Mönchengladbach, Borussia Dortmund has successfully started the Premier League International Cup with a mix of U23 and U19 players. On Tuesday evening, BVB won their opening match in York against Leeds United with a 3-0 victory. This is quite remarkable, as Leeds had won their first two games in the competition, which started back in September, against Sporting Lisbon (2-1) and Athletic Bilbao (2-0).

BVB, guided by the U23 coaching team led by Daniel Rios and U19 coach Felix Hirschnagl, showed determination against Leeds from the start and took the lead in the eleventh minute. Ayman Azhil capitalized on a pass from Taycan Etcibasi to make it 1-0 for Borussia, who maintained control of the game despite the English team growing stronger.

In the 33rd minute, Mathis Albert, set up by Babis Drakas, impressively increased the lead to 2-0, which remained the score at halftime. After the break, BVB initially missed a good chance from Drakas to make it 3-0, before a hard-fought encounter developed with few highlights on either side.

On Friday at Manchester United

When Etcibasi scored the third goal for BVB in the 84th minute following a free-kick cross from substitute Tony Reitz, with some help from Leeds goalkeeper Rory Mahady, the decision was sealed. Much to the delight of coach Rios, who expressed his overall satisfaction with his team's performance on the club's website: "We talked beforehand about wanting to play our game right away. The guys implemented that well from the first minute. We were very brave against the ball, kept calm with the ball even though they pressed forward. In important phases, we kept the ball in our own ranks and allowed little. It was a deserved victory."

The next match continues on Friday with the second group game at Old Trafford against Manchester United, before the next group matches against West Ham United and AFC Sunderland take place in January.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.