Borussia Dortmund's junior teams will face two interesting opponents in friendlies on Saturday (18 January).

The U17s will welcome the leaders of the Niederrheinliga, Rot-Weiss Essen, to the Hohenbuschei youth performance centre at 11:00 CET. Coach Sebastian Geppert will have Dennis Lütke-Frie, Lionel Semic, Samuel Bamba, Nnamdi Collins and Faroukou Cisse, who had been at winter training camps with the DFB youth setup, available again.

That will be followed by a meeting between the U19s and their TSG Hoffenheim counterparts, who sit fourth in the Bundesliga South, at 13:00 CET. Michael Skibbe, who will be without Giovanni Reyna (first-team duty), Luca Unbehaun, Immanuel Pherai, Ramzi Ferjani, Alaa Bakir and Reda Khadra (all with the U23s at their training camp), said: "It is yet another good opportunity for the other players to show what they can do and state their case." (wiwi)