Borussia Dortmund are going full throttle in their preparations for the second half of the season. In today's session, the team practised with the ball for the first time at their training camp. In addition, Jadon Sancho joined his teammates in Marbella, meaning that the entire 30 man black-and-yellow squad is now in Spain.

BVB have based themselves in Marbella for the third year in a row, with the blue skies under the Spanish sun proving the ideal conditions for intense training. On the programme for today's 90 minute session were pass and ball exercises, followed by strength and speed tests. The session came to a close with a game involving six goals which is designed to improve play in tight spaces and which should therefore help prepare the league leaders for deep-lying defensive opponents. 

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Geburtstag: Matthias Kleinsteiber

''It's hard playing against a lot of teams because they sit deep against us. They set up differently against us because we've performed so well this season. This maybe means that we have to make the odd adjustment to deal with this,'' said Thomas Delaney at today's press conference. The Dane has been forced to gradually make his way back into team training due to a calf problem, but this hasn't seemed to affect his typically high level of motivation: ''These are going to be a really intense few days, we're able to train a lot with such good weather.''

Christian Pulisic also made himself available to answer journalists' questions. The American still has big ambitions for the second half of the season with BVB: ''If we keep on doing what we've been doing so far, we'll be able to build on our solid performances, which will give us real confidence. We fully deserve to be where we are at this point.''

What is more, today marks the 41st birthday of goalkeeper coach Matthias Kleinsteiber, to whom we say: happy birthday!
Patrick Eckholt

Info: tickets for the upcoming friendly match against Fortuna Düsseldorf on Monday (7 January, 16.00 CET) can be purchased from 10.00 to 18.00 CET this Sunday at the ''Marbella Football Centre'' at the cost of €10 per ticket. Any remaining tickets may also be purchased on the day of the match. A total of 900 tickets are for sale. 

For fans who are not able to be there in person, the game will be streamed live on BVB TV as well as on the club's Facebook and YouTube channels. The game will also be broadcast live in Germany on the TV channel SPORT1.