Dortmund seeking a lift in derby against troubled Schalke

Something crucial is missing for Borussia Dortmund, and not for the first time.

Dortmund has lost three of its last five games after starting its Champions League campaign with a 3-1 defeat to Lazio on Tuesday, and once again looks fragile when it matters most.

Next up is a local derby against Schalke, which hasn't won a game in the Bundesliga since January. Anything other than an emphatic win could look like failure for Dortmund, considering Schalke has already been thrashed 8-0 by Bayern Munich this season and lost 4-0 to Leipzig.

Coach Lucien Favre vowed Thursday that something will change in time for the Schalke game. Besides a reference to the team's problems winning the ball back against Lazio, he was vague on specifics.

The Dortmund-Schalke derby was the highlight of the first day when the Bundesliga returned amid the coronavirus pandemic in May. Both teams still seem stuck in their spring form.

Dortmund's recent showings against Lazio, in a 2-0 loss to Augsburg and the 3-2 loss to Bayern in the German Super Cup all had echoes of the incoherent defending and missed opportunities which sank Dortmund's title challenge last season. Schalke arrives with a new coach, Manuel Baum, who oversaw a 1-1 draw with Union Berlin last week for the club's first point since June.

With a young squad led by Erling Haaland and Jadon Sancho in attack, with support from Gio Reyna and Jude Bellingham in midfield, time should be on Dortmund's side as they gain experience. However, recent history — not least Manchester United's tenacious attempts to sign Sancho in the summer — shows the squad may not be together for long. Favre is approaching two and a half years in charge with the 2019 German Super Cup as his only trophy in that time.

Despite spending much of its time and effort in the off-season trying to keep Sancho, Dortmund managed to sign Bellingham. Still just 17, the former Birmingham City talent has played in every one of the club's games so far in 2020-21. The arrival of Thomas Meunier as a free agent after leaving Paris Saint-Germain patched the hole on the right flank left by the end of Achraf Hakimi's loan deal.

Saturday's derby will be played in front of just 300 fans out of 35,000 Dortmund season-ticket holders who applied. The rising coronavirus infection rates in the city of Dortmund mean the club is not allowed a repeat of its last home game against

Freiburg, when 11,500 were in attendance.

Meunier said when he signed that the atmosphere of Dortmund's stadium — colorful and deafeningly loud as it usually is — had done much to convince him to join after he got a taste while playing there for PSG in February.

Much as in the rest of Europe, Germany's coronavirus situation is worsening, and the initial sixweek trial period for having fans in stadiums expires next week. Meunier may have to wait a long time to feel that buzz from the crowd again.

Lukaku-centric Inter Milan becoming all too predictable

Inter Milan's dependence on Romelu Lukaku could be making the Nerazzurri a bit too predictable.

Touted as title challengers at the start of the season, it has been a week to forget for Inter.

It lost the derby to fierce rival AC Milan on Saturday and then needed a last-minute equalizer from Lukaku to scrape a 2-2 draw against Borussia Mönchengladbach in their Champions League opener on Wednesday.

Lukaku scored both goals to take his tally to six in five matches this season. He has netted almost half of Inter's 14 goals.

And other teams are realizing that stopping Lukaku means stopping Inter.

Moreover, Inter is struggling at the back. Aleksandar Kolarov has failed to settle in since joining from Roma in the offseason and has been at fault for several goals Inter has conceded.

Fellow new signing Arturo Vidal was to blame for both goals Inter allowed in on Wednesday, however, as the midfielder needlessly gave away a penalty and then played Hofmann onside for Glabach's second.

Inter coach Antonio Conte defended his players and insisted other factors had played their part, notably that the squad had been hard hit by the coronavirus.

Full back Achraf Hakimi tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. Teammates Ashley Young, Milan Škriniar, Roberto Gagliardini and Ionut Radu were also out with the virus and Alessandro Bastoni and Radja Nainggolan had only just recovered.

"Receiving the news about Hakimi testing positive for COVID-19 certainly wasn't easy," Conte said. "We'd prepared for certain situations and Achraf was set to start.

"It wasn't easy, including from a psychological point of view, but the lads approached the match with the right spirit and showed they are good men."

Inter needs to bounce back on Saturday against Genoa, a team that was even worse hit by the coronavirus.

More than 20 Genoa players and staff tested positive for COVID-19 and their match at Torino on Oct. 3 had to be postponed. Most of them have returned and the team managed a 0-0 draw at Hellas Verona on Monday.

Inter has slipped to sixth in Serie A after drawing at Lazio before the derby defeat. It will nevertheless be expected to beat Genoa and also pick up points in its next league match against Parma.

Games against Atalanta and Real Madrid in the next month will certainly prove tougher.