Borussia Dortmund's U23s have missed out on the chance to round off an outstanding year with a Ruhr derby win. A 0-0 draw against their FC Schalke 04 counterparts in front of 3,359 fans on Saturday means this season's only unbeaten team will spend the winter break in third.

BVB II will go into the mid-season hiatus on 41 points, four behind league leaders Borussia Mönchengladbach (45 points) and one behind second-placed Viktoria Köln (42).

The trio have already begun to pull away from their league rivals, with fourth-placed RW Essen on 33 points from 20 matches. Should Daniel Farke's charges win their game in hand, which has yet to be scheduled, against Sportfreunde Siegen in the New Year, they will move up into second. 

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"We can be very satisfied over the winter break"

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"What the lads have achieved throughout the year has been sensational. Our points average is extraordinary. We can be very satisfied over the winter break," said Farke in the aftermath of the Schalke clash.

Borussia struggled over the full 90 minutes against the Royal Blues, creating only two good chances. Shortly before the interval captain Christoph Zimmermann missed the chance to fire the hosts ahead from a header (41), then in the second period the visitors almost turned the ball into their own net following a Massih Wassey cross (83). "We can and must live with the point," Farke said. Left-back Sören Dieckmann had to be substituted off in the opening stages with a suspected broken rib.

The U23s will resume training on 10 January. At the beginning of February the Dortmund camp will travel to their training camp in Spain. The first competitive game of 2017 comes against RW Oberhausen on 18 February.

BVB II: Reckert - Camoglu, Zimmermann, Mainka, Dietz - Karazor - Wassey, Hober, Eberwein, Dieckamnn (Arweiler, 18) - Al Ghaddioui
Florian Groeger