BVB without Brandt, but with a plan against Haaland and co. | OneFootball

There were only two days between the 120 minutes of cup action in Frankfurt and last Friday’s Bundesliga match away to Augsburg (1-0), but the team have now had at least four days of rest before the trip to Manchester. The personnel situation remains such that head coach Niko Kovac can bring fresh players into the squad, but in some cases he has had no choice but to make changes. Nico Schlotterbeck is back and will replace Aaron Anselmino, who, after a long break, played 45 minutes in Frankfurt and 90 minutes in Augsburg, where he clocked up 12 kilometres as a centre-back and will therefore “not play tomorrow because we have to give the lad time”. Julian Brandt has stayed at home, as has Niklas Süle, who is nursing a toe injury. Kovac spoke of a “muscular imbalance” in Brandt’s case, adding: “The risk would have been too great.”

Kovac had Pascal Gross at his side on the podium at Tuesday evening’s press conference. The Germany international is an expert on English football thanks to his time in the Premier League, having played a total of 12 times against Manchester City between 2017 and 2024. He says the opposition are “more beatable than they were years ago. Many established players who were instrumental in City’s success for several years have left the club. But they still have world-class players in their ranks.” One of them used to be a Borussia player: Erling Haaland. “An absolute world-class player who is currently putting up incredible numbers. We have to stop him as a team,” said Gross, adding in the same breath: “But City have enormous quality in every position, which is why we have to play our game: defend together and attack together.”

Against the second-placed team in the world’s strongest national league (six wins, one draw, three defeats, 20 goals scored, eight conceded, match facts), the team in third place in the Bundesliga will have to work hard and spend a lot of time defending. But: “It’s true that you can have a lot more space in the Champions League and maybe a little more time,” said Kovac: “That means my players will have the time to show their quality.” The head coach announced that his team will not look to park the bus: “We have to defend against City’s strengths as a unit – and one of them is certainly Erling Haaland up front. But I stand by my opinion: we still have to defend high up the pitch, because the higher you are, the higher you can win the ball and the further away the opponent is from the goal.”

The match can be seen and heard on Wednesday evening on DAZN and BVB Netradio. We will also be broadcasting every BVB match in the UEFA Champions League as a watch party from our brand new studio in Dortmund and will be gathering the latest insights and reactions from the stadium from 20:30 CET onwards.Boris Rupert