The Borussia Dortmund U23s played their final friendly before the 3. Liga campaign starts next weekend when they took on Fortuna Köln on the artificial turf in Dortmund-Brackel on Sunday. After 90 minutes against the Regionalliga outfit, the score was 0-0.

Despite the unfamiliar playing surface, coach Jan Zimmermann was satisfied with the way the match went: "I'm happy that we were able to find a good opponent for the final friendly in Fortuna Köln, who particularly challenged us in the tackles. That was a good thing in order to get that competitive toughness."

The first half saw Lion Semic (right) and Hendry Blank (left) form a new-look back four alongside central defenders Franz Pfanne and Mario Suver. "Defensively, we gave little away," said Zimmermann in praise of his defence. Blank had to be substituted off with a knock at the interval, with Prince Aning returning to the team in his place following a long injury lay-off.

Franz Roggow, Ayman Azhil and Ole Pohlmann started in midfield, with Sammy Bamba, Rodney Elongo-Yombo and Julian Hettwer further forward in attack. It was Hettwer who had the best chance for the Black & Yellows in the first half.

Moses Otuali, Michael Eberwein and new signing Antonis Aidonis all got some playing time in the remainder of the match. In what remained of the game, BVB had several opportunities to score a goal. The best opportunity arose when a Fortuna player steered the ball towards his own goal and it seemed to have crossed the line. But the referee's assistant signalled that the only goal of the game should not stand.

Jan Zimmermann: "By the end, we were able to use all the outfield players we had available and try things out. It didn't all work out, especially in the final third. But we should've won the match towards the end. There were one or two things which we still need to address and which we will work on."

The Black & Yellow U23s will play their next competitive match away to the SC Freiburg reserves in the 3. Liga next weekend (Sunday 21/01, kick-off at 19:30 CET).