Daily Schmankerl: Champions League highlights; Mourinho a candidate for BVB; Bayern Munich scouting Benfica vs Lyon

Champions League: Dortmund capitulates to Inter, Leipzig beats Zenit, big clubs win

Inter 2-0 Dortmund — Wednesday’s Champions League matchday was action packed, at least if you were not Dortmund. Lacking Marco Reus and Paco Alcacer, BVB gave a lifeless performance in Milan. Inter’s Lauraro Martínez opened the scoring in the first half. While Dortmund fought on in the second half, Mats Hummels gave away a penalty and was bailed out by Roman Bürki. But Dortmund conceded a second goal minutes later anyway on a ruthlessly efficient counter. Things look bleak for Lucien Favre: they play a hot Schalke away in Gelsenkirchen on Saturday. Check out the recap at Fear the Wall.

Ajax 0-1 Chelsea — Chelsea and Ajax battled to a draw until Captain America Christian Pulisic connected with his erstwhile Dortmund teammate Michy Batshuayi for the winner. The result leaves Chelsea at the top of group H, tied with Ajax on points but ahead on the tiebreaker.

RB Leipzig 2-1 Zenit — Leipzig went down early to Zenit but came roaring back in the second half with goals by Conrad Laimer and an early candidate for goal of the year by Marcel Sabitzer. Check this screamer out:

Elsewhere, Barcelona beat Slavia Praha with a modest 2-1 scoreline. Messi scored in the third minute and Barca wrapped up the win on an own-goal. Carlo Ancelotti’s Napoli ground out a 3-2 win over Red Bull Salzburg, as Lorenzo Insigne scored a minute after Salzburg’s Erling Haaland converted a penalty for a brace. Liverpool squashed Genk 4-1. Lille and Valencia parted after a 1-1 draw. And last but not least, Benfica beat Lyon 2-1 in amusing fashion:

How not to play out from the back (Benfica vs Lyon)

Mourinho a candidate to replace Lucien Favre (Bild)

Lucien Favre’s tenure as head coach of Borussia Dortmund looks increasingly... tenuous. According to Bild, Dortmund considers the Special One himself, José Mourinho, a potential candidate to replace him if they decide Favre must go. Mourinho was fired by Manchester United ten months ago and has been studying German (in addition to the other five languages he speaks). Of course, Mourinho is an even hotter candidate to replace Real Madrid’s Zinedine Zidane, who has lost much of his lustre recently.

Bayern Munich scouting Benfica vs Lyon (@scoutsattending)

Bayern Munich and just about everyone else (BVB, Eintracht, Leverkusen, Leipzig, and even HSV, just to name German clubs) were in attendance for Benfica vs Lyon. There was a lot of interesting talent on the pitch. Who might Bayern be scouting?

Who might have attracted Bayern’s interested? Here are the starting lineups from the game:

Benfica: Vlachodimos; Grimaldo, Ferro, Rúben Dias, Franco Tavares; Gedson Fernandes, Gabriel Pires, Florentino Luís, Franco Cervi; Rafa, Seferovic.

Subs: Carlos Vinicius, Raúl de Tomás, Pizzi

Lyon: Lopes; Léo Dubois, Marcelo, Jason Denayer, Youssouf Kone; Maxwel Cornet, Lucas Tousart, Houssem Aouar, Martin Terrier; Moussa Dembele, Memphis Depay.

Subs: Jeff Reine-Adélaide, Bertrand Traoré, Thiago Mendes

Night games to be banned for noise in SC Freiburg’s new stadium? (Sport1)

SC Freiburg is planning to move into a brand new stadium next year, but there’s a catch. A court ruling would prevent Freiburg from holding games weekdays between 8 and 10 pm, Sundays between 1 and 3 pm and at night after 10 pm.

That would mean Freiburg could only ever play on Saturday afternoons...

Well, maybe not. Fortunately for them, the verdict in favor of their noise-sensitive neighbors is apparently based on outdated noise standards, and the judges acknowledged the mistake. Once it all works out, the game should, presumably, go on.

Niklas Stark cannot see in the dark (Sport1)

Remember Hertha Berlin’s Niklas Stark, whose international debut was delayed yet again because he received a gash on his leg at the Germany team hotel? Stark told Sport1 how the freak accident happened. Did soccer tennis get out of hand? A wild party? Nein, Stark simply bumped into a glass table in the dark:

Of course it’s totally awful. But I can smile about it now. I think everyone had bumped into something at night before.

All Germany knew about my action. If it hadn’t been so awful, it would have been a funny story. It was simply dark. I just couldn’t see anything.

Borussia-Park no more? Gladbach may sell naming rights (Sport Bild)

Mönchengladbach’s sporting director, Max Eberl, acknowledged that the club may be willing to sell naming rights for its Borussia-Park. He said,

If a company suddenly comes along offering us €10 million a year for naming rights to our stadium, then we’d have to think about it. That would mean a lot of money for Borussia. In that case, we have a responsibility to the club. Even if it should happen some day, we would definitely keep “Borussia Park” in the name.

That’s not using your head (Goalkeeping 101)

Booking coaches is good and fun