BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund held on after Pascal Groß’ sending off to beat Wolfsburg 3-1 for its first Bundesliga away win of the season on Sunday.
Donyell Malen got the visitors off the mark with a volley to a corner in the 25th, three minutes before Julian Brandt played in Maximilian Beier to score Dortmund’s second goal. Beier, who scored with the outside of his boot in off the left post, celebrated with a throwing-dart gesture.
Beier returned the favor for Brandt to score Dortmund’s third two minutes after that.
Despite the commanding lead, the visitors were second-best for long periods thereafter as Wolfsburg improved dramatically.
Coach Ralph Hasenhüttl made two changes at the break, including sending on Lukas Nmecha to face his brother Felix Nmecha, who was playing for Dortmund.
Denis Vavro pulled one back in the 58th, four minutes before Groß was sent off for a foul on Lukas Nmecha when the Wolfsburg forward was through on goal.
The home team pushed hard but Dortmund managed to hold on to ease the pressure on coach Nuri Sahin.
“A 3-0 lead should mean you can get through the game with confidence,” said Brandt, who complained about his team’s drop in performance. “We’re to blame for that. It’s not good, we need to play more confidently, we need to grow up.”
Dortmund climbed to sixth ahead of the league’s winter break, but it’s not where the club aspires to be after a shaky start to the league.
“We’ll try a reset and to play better in the new year,” Beier said. “It can’t be our goal to be sixth.”
Bochum celebrates
Bottom club Bochum defeated relegation rival Heidenheim 2-0 for its first win of the season.
“When we play like we did today it means there are lots of possibilities for the next 19 games,” said Bochum coach Dieter Hecking. “From that point of view I’m also glad we won because I couldn’t have handled many more games without a win.”
It was the visitors’ seventh straight Bundesliga defeat, the culmination of a busy schedule after clinching European qualification from its league debut last season and the offseason loss of star players like Jan-Niklas Beste, Tim Kleindienst and Eren Dinkci.
“We’re at the end of another ‘English week’ (with midweek games) again,” Heidenheim coach Frank Schmidt said. “Everyone did their best, but we have to be honest – it wasn’t enough.”
Dortmund holds on with 10 men for 1st away win in Bundesliga
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Dortmund holds on with 10 men for 1st away win in Bundesliga
- Dortmund climbed to sixth ahead of the league’s winter break, but it’s not where the club aspires to be after a shaky start to the league
Trump lauds Infantino for ‘record breaking’ World Cup
- Trump said: “You’ve done a fantastic job, a great leader in sports and a great gentleman”
- Trump claimed sales were selling at a pace never seen before
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump turned the spotlight onto FIFA president Gianni Infantino ahead of Friday’s 2026 World Cup draw in Washington, praising the football boss’ organization of the world’s biggest sporting event.
Infantino has been criticized in recent months by some observers who accuse him of drawing uncomfortably close to Trump, whose administration has taken a high-profile role in US preparations for what will be the biggest and most logistically-challenging World Cup ever.
The soccer boss attended Trump’s inauguration in January and has previously said the US leader deserved global recognition for his role in brokering a ceasefire in the Middle East.
FIFA plans to unveil its own peace prize during the draw ceremony with Trump the expected recipient. Spotting Infantino in the audience during a ceremony in Washington marking the signing of a peace treaty between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Trump congratulated him for what he described as record-breaking ticket demand for the first 48-team World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“Gianni, thank you very much,” Trump said. “You’ve done a fantastic job, a great leader in sports and a great gentleman.”
Teams will learn their group-stage fate later on Friday at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in a draw for a tournament that stretches across three countries and 16 cities, from Vancouver to Mexico City.
Trump claimed sales were selling at a pace never seen before. “I can report to you that we have sold more tickets than any country anywhere in the world at this stage of the game,” he said, adding that demand had already “broken all records”. Over one million tickets have been purchased so far by fans from 212 countries, FIFA said last month.
After the presidential shout-out, Infantino did not speak publicly.
The FIFA president is overseeing his third men’s World Cup, after Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.
