The U19s' dress rehearsal prior to the start of their Bundesliga campaign against FC Schalke 04 this Sunday (11:00 CET at the Brackel youth performance centre) was overshadowed by a serious hand injury, which was sustained by Isaak Nwachukwu following an unfortunate collision. The forward needed to be transported to hospital and now faces weeks on the sidelines.

Borussia were beaten 3-1 by the PEC Zwolle U21s in their final friendly. "The team showed a decent performance against a strong and very mature opponent. We unfortunately missed too many chances," said coach Mike Tullberg in summary. That was especially the case during the turbulent finish to the game, in which Raul König, Julian Rijkhoff and Noa-Gabriel Simic wasted great opportunities. Vincenzo Onofrietti had pulled a goal back to cut Zwolle's 2-0 lead, but the Dutchmen made it 3-1 straight from kick-off.

Mike Tullberg is expecting the return of Nnamdi Collins and Filippo Mane for the derby. Samuel Bamba, who missed the match with Zwolle, is set to be included in the squad.

BVB U19s: Kirsch – Husseck, Cisse, Blank, Korzynietz – Onofrietti (46. Lubach), Walz, Ludwig – Simic, Rijkhoff, Mengot (Nwachukwu, 46; König, 72)

Borussia's U17s lost a friendly – played across three 45-minute periods – 3-2 against Danish side FC Nordsjaelland's U17s. With the exception of the injured Elias Benkara, Gökdeniz Gürpüz and Almugera Kabar, coach Karsten Gorges fielded the entire squad. "We would have liked to get a better result but can take lots of positive lessons and impressions from this very intense match," commented Gorges. The dress rehearsal for the Bundesliga restart away to SV Deutz 05 next Sunday will take place on Tuesday, with the Hombrucher SV U19s the opponents (kick-off at the youth performance centre at 16:00 CET).

BVB U17s: Lisewski – Numbisie, Rahmann, Meiser, Plöger – Herrmann, Zickler – Uka, Wätjen – Brunner (substituted on: Held, Adamczyk, Mahjoubi, Kerlen, Burstedde, Sadeghi, Masjedizadah, Bäcker)
(wiwi)