Sancho boost for Dortmund ahead of crunch match
JADON Sancho has returned to Borussia Dortmund training ahead of their Champions League second leg against City tomorrow.
The England international winger missed the first leg at the Etihad last week through injury, remaining in Germany instead of returning to his former club where he never made a senior appearance.
City secured a late win against Dortmund after Marco Reus scored what could be an important away goal, but ‘die Schwarzgelben’ – the Black Yellow – must win 1-0 on Wednesday or beat City by two clear goals to progress. A 2-1 home win at the Westfalonstadion would take the game to extra time.
So Dortmund will be buoyed by the potential availability of Sancho, 21, who has missed the last seven games. Before that, he had 11 goals or assists in his previous nine appearances.
On Sunday, Dortmund posted images of Sancho going through individual fitness drills, saying: “Good to see you, @Sanchooo10. This morning has Jadon Sancho completed individual advanced training on the pitch.”
While Sancho wasn’t involved in the first leg, he was watching on keenly from home, and posted criticism of the Romanian referee after Dortmund saw a Jude Bellingham goal disallowed.
Bellingham challenged Ederson for the ball, but the referee blew the whistle before the teenager could tap into an empty net, while replays showed the challenge was fair. Taking to Twitter, Sancho said: “This Ref needs checking!”
After the game, Dortmund coach Eden Terzic and experienced defender Mats Hummels said the German side are still firmly in the tie.
Terzic said: “Pep had some nice words for me at full-time, but we’re not done yet. We’ll see each other again in eight days’ time. It’s halftime and the tie is still open. We’ll be ready to give it our all to overturn the result and reach the next round.”
Hummels added: “Our chance is still there. It would have been even better at 1-1, which is a great result in the knockout stages. We know we have to score in the second leg, but we saw tonight that we created more chances than they did, which wasn’t necessarily to be expected. We have to do the same in the second leg. It will be a big challenge.”