Man City vs DortmundJude Bellingham headed Borussia Dortmund into a second-half lead against Manchester City in Champions League Group G.
Erling Haaland went into the reunion with his former club having scored 12 times in seven matches this season, but he and the rest of Pep Guardiola’s attack were effectively during a listless first half where they did not manage a shot on target.
That remained the case when Bellingham nodded Marco Reus’ shot beyond Ederson, prompting Guardiola to send on Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva and Julian Alvarez for Riyad Mahrez, Ilkay Gundogan and Jack Grealish.
The Sporting News is following the match live and providing live score updates and commentary.
Man City vs. Borussia Dortmund live score
| 1H | 2H | Final | |
| MCI | 0 | 0 | — |
| BVB | 0 | 1 | — |
Goals:
BVB — Jude Bellingham (Marco Reus) — 56th min.
Man City vs. Borussia Dortmund live updates, highlights from the Champions League
72nd minute: Sule and Hummels really have been fantastic. The latter makes a tremendous block this time as Foden arrows a dangerous cross in Haaland’s direction.
71st minute: Can flies into challenge on De Bruyne and takes the opportunity for a well-earned sit down. We’re back underway and Dortmund are less than 20 minutes away from a very impressive win.
69th minute: Sule makes an outstanding lunging interception as De Bruyne aims a Beckham-style cross towards Haaland. It feels pretty obvious where the danger will come from for Dortmund from this point.
68th minute: Cancelo dribbles brilliantly past a couple of challenges. He overruns it in the box and decides to fall over. Referee Daniele Orsato is unimpressed.
66th minute: A Haaland chance! He can’t take it. De Bruyne, now stationed on the right of midfield, chips one into the channel. He gets there first and fires a bouncing ball into the side netting right footed.
64th minute: Bit of huffing and puffing from City since the goal, including the scampering Alvarez fouling Hummels when he couldn’t move the veteran. But nothing doing as yet and you’d fancy more chances to open up for Dortmund on the break.
56th minute: GOOOAALLLLL!!!! Bellingham!!!!
Well over those past couple of minutes, it had been coming! The corner is half cleared, Reus thumps a bouncing ball back towards goal and the England midfielder glances an opportunistic header past Ederson. Guardiola had already signalled to Foden and Bernardo to get ready to come on, Alvarez is on his way too. Off come Mahrez, Gundogan and Grealish.
55th minute: Dortmund find space down the City left twice in quick succession. Meunier’s first cross is wasteful but the second wins a corner.
53rd minute: City pile forward in response, Haaland has an ambitious shot blocked by Bellingham, who then comes away with the ball for Dortmund and Rodri earns a booking for bringing him down.
52nd minute: A chance! A Dortmund chance! Reus reminds Akanji of his worst days in training by impishly leaving him on the deck. He clips a finish just beyond the far post. That would have been a lovely goal.
51st minute: Ake gets up to win another header. He really has been immaculate. Which he’ll have to remind people of tomorrow morning when they’ve forgotten all about this game.
49th minute: De Bruyne gets down the Dortmund left to cross. Haaland is poised but Meyer dives to pouch the ball.
48th minute: De Bruyne is again being stationed very high up the field alongside Haaland. Tactical idiot speaking here, but surely if that’s the shape, it would make more sense for Guardiola to have the livewire Alvarez as part of the equation.
46th minute: We’re back underway. City were out quite a bit later than Dortmund. Guardiola’s team talk was probably more watchable than the entire first half.
Halftime: Well, of all the Champions League first halves I’ve ever seen, that one is by far the most recent. City had 64% of the ball and didn’t manage a shot on target. Dortmund managed one through Ozcan, which Ederson caught. Guardiola’s team have been pretty insipid and predictable, lacking in penetration with Foden and Silva resting up on the bench. You’d think we’ll see one of those or Alvarez pretty soon if this continues. Dortmund, after their 3-0 hosing down at RB Leipzig over the weekend, have been defensively impeccable and carried a threat on the break.
45th minute: Hummels makes a superb block as Mahrez tries to threat a pass into the Dortmund area. It’s been a fine half from the veteran centre-back.
40th minute: Ozan gets up for a header in the City box. The ball breaks to Bellingham. It looks like he might have a shooting chance but Rodri nips in to dispossess.
39th minute: Dortmund work the ball smoothly through midfield. Here’s Bellingham on the left. He curls a ball across the edge of the City box that Cancelo intercepts nonchalantly with the outside of his boot.
37th minute: Grealish lofts a pass behind the Dortmund defence and De Bruyne scampers onto it. He crosses from the left flank but Haaland can’t bring it down.
35th minute: Haaland drops in and sends a lovely pass to Grealish. Not saying the game has become repetitive, but he cuts inside, has the shot blocked behind and City don’t do anything of note from the corner.
34th minute: The corner is cleared again. Shortly afterwards, Guerreiro heads a chipped left-footed cross from Grealish away. That was better purely for changing the angle of attack.
33rd minute: Oohh errr, Cancelo pulls a fresh-air clearance out of the bag. Reus and Dortmund advance down the right but it comes to nought. At the other end, a Grealish shot is blocked again and it’s a corner again.
31st minute: Dortmund corner on the left. Reyna swings it over everyone and out for a goal kick. It’s been that sort of night so far.
30th minute: Reyna darts across the City defence 35 yards from goal. Cancelo goes with him and, despite having plenty of teammates around him, commits a pretty brainless foul. Akanji rises to take care of the free-kick.
29th minute: Home fans trying to rouse their team as they pop passes about in front of Dortmund. It’s become pretty pedestrian.
25th minute: Ake expertly snuffs out a Dortmund attack, Meunier does likewise to dispossess Grealish moments later. It’s been an unexpectedly enjoyably night for defenders so far. Haaland gets a pass in his direction on the edge of the area but can’t bring it under his spell.
23rd minute: Meyer punches De Bruyne’s delivery clear. The Belgian gets it back and crosses towards Mahrez, who telegraphs an absurdly ambitious volley that never comes close to being a reality.
22nd minute: Dortmund play out of the City press a little too easily for Guardiola’s liking. He throws his arms around in anguish on the touchline. On the host’s next attack, De Bruyne wins a corner.
20th minute: Gundogan misjudged a challenge on Reyna and the USA international player Meunier into room down the City left. His cross is towards Modeste who commits a bundling foul on Akanji.
17th minute: Grealish cuts inside – that’s already getting a touch predictable from both City wingers – and has a shot blocked. Gundogan wins a corner that De Bruyne floats tepidly to the edge of the box.
16th minute: Nice Dortmund response ends with Ozcan cutting in to fire a curling effort that Ederson does well to hold.
15th minute: Gundogan wins the ball back in a dangerous area as Dortmund half clear. He finds Mahrez who loops it towards Haaland in the six-yard box but he can’t connect under heavy attention from Hummels.
13th minute: Cancelo scoots around a couple of Dortmund challenges and into the box. He tries to work it back onto his right foot and, in doing so, the ball crosses the line for a goal kick.
12th minute: Dortmund just enjoyed a good, sustained spell of possession. Nothing came of it but it underlines what an assured start the visitors have made.
8th minute: Ake makes a sliding challenge on Reus but the Dortmund forward retains possession. His right-wing cross towards Modeste s headed away by Akanji.
6th minute: Good ball out to the right from Bellingham. Meunier tries to slide one in behind the City defence but Cancelo intervenes.
4th minute: Gundogan finds Mahrez with a sumptuous crossfield ball, playing him into the space behind Sule. The cross is wasteful and Mayer gathers again.
2nd minute: City immediately on the front foot, popping the ball around, looking to work angles with Rodri dictating things. Cancelo aims an in-swinging cross towards Haaland but it goes safely into Mayer’s arms.
1 min from kickoff: The minute’s silence for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the second has been observed and we’re ready to go.
5 mins from kickoff: Clad in their traditional yellow and black, banging drums, the travelling Dortmund fans away to my right are giving it big licks. They’re finally drowned out when Erling Haaland is the last City name to be read out over the tannoy. The teams will be with us shortly.
20 mins from kickoff: Looks like it will be Stones at right-back. Something that might pique the interest of Reus and Reyna who are set to man the flanks for Dortmund. Jude Bellingham, who impressed on his last outing on this ground and scored against City at Signal Iduna Park, will hope to get the opportunity to make decisive breaks forward from midfield.
30 mins from kickoff: The teams are out and going through their warmups. There’s an element of intrigue as we await City’s defenders doing any specific back four work. The UEFA team sheet and City’s Twitter have John Stones starting at right-back. That feels like a needless complication when Joao Cancelo and Nathan Ake could each play on their natural sides in a more balanced back four.
50 mins from kickoff: Pep Guardiola is out doing his pre-match broadcast interviews at the side of the pitch. In tonight’s programme, he says: “Our target is to reach the last 16. If we can make it to the knockout stages again, I will be very proud of these players and this club.”
Reckon you might be selling you and your boys a little short there, Pep.
1hr 10 mins from kickoff: And this is the Dortmund team. Gio Reyna starts after impressing against Copenhagen last week. Interestingly, Mats Hummels will partner Niklas Sule at centre-back, with Nico Schlotterbeck on the bench. It’s interesting from the point of view that Schlotterbeck told Sport1 that “I know how to stop Haaland”. Evidently, Edin Terzic doesn’t entirely agree.
1hr 15 mins from kickoff: The City lineup is in and Akanji starts against his former club, As does Haaland, obviously, who will be flanked by Riyad Mahrez and Jack Grealish in attack. Mahrez scored a clutch penalty in the side’s 2021 meeting at Signal Iduna Park but is yet to find his feet in a reconfigured City forward line this season. Phil Foden, who scored in both legs against Dortmund a year-and-a-half ago, is on the bench alongside Bernardo Silva and Ruben Dias.
1hr 20 mins from kickoff: Dortmund obviously know more about Haaland than most, but checking the prolific form of a player with 12 goals in seven outings for his new employers will be key if they are to leave Manchester with a positive result. “How do you stop him? Good question,” said Dortmund captain and Haaland’s former strike partner Marco Reus in an interview with The Guardian. “It’s not easy to stop him. One of the keys is not to be too late with your decisions, to be good at anticipating what is going to happen. You have to stay close to him to be able to stop him as much as possible for 90 minutes. Then you just have to hope he doesn’t have his best day.”
City might also have to hope Reus doesn’t have his best day. He has scored on both of his previous visits to this ground – in 2012 when Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund dazzled in a 1-1 group-stage draw and in 2021 on the end of a Haaland assist in a 2-1 quarter-final first leg defeat.
1hr 40 mins from kickoff: We have Friends Reunited instalment of Champions League action at the Etihad Stadium tonight. Of course, Erling Haaland was the headline signing of the summer, joining City from Dortmund after his £51.2million release clause was activated, but the links between the two clubs do not stop there. Manuel Akanji, who made his City debut in last week’s 4-0 stroll against Sevilla, signed from Dortmund two weeks ago and left-back Sergio Gomez also spent some time on the books at Signal Iduna Park.
City’s club captain nowadays is Ilkay Gundogan – Pep Guardiola’s first signing at the club back in 2016 from, you guessed it, Borussia Dortmund. The talent exchange can cut both ways. Jadon Sancho blossomed at BVB after leaving City as a youth player, while injured teenager Jamie Bynoe-Gittens might have faced the club he left to seek a new challenge in the Bundesliga were it not for an ill-time shoulder injury.
2 hours from kickoff: Hello and welcome to The Sporting News’ coverage of the Champions League Group G clash between Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund.
Man City vs. Borussia Dortmund lineups
Kyle Walker and John Stones sat out the trip to Seville and, although the latter is back in training and fit to feature, Guardiola will have to do without his first-choice right-back. Manuel Akanji, a recent arrival from Dortmund faces his former club alongside Erling Haaland and Ilkay Gundogan.
Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez join City’s top scorer in attack.
Man City lineup (4-3-3): Ederson (GK) — Stones, Akanji, Ake, Cancelo — De Bruyne, Rodri, Gundogan — Mahrez, Haaland, Grealish.
Thorgan Hazard missed Dortmund’s trip to RB Leipzig at the weekend after going off injured before halftime against Copenhagen. Marius Wolf came in as the only alteration to the midweek XI at the Red Bull Arena, but BVB were walloped 3-0.
Giovanni Reyna was Hazard’s replacement against Copenhagen and chipped in with two assists so could get the nod in Manchester. Donyell Malen and Karim Adeyemi will hope to bolster Terzic’s attacking options if they are able to prove their fitness.
Dortmund projected lineup (4-2-3-1): Meyer (GK) — Meunier, Sule, Hummels, Guerreiro — Can, Ozcan — Reyna, Bellingham, Reus — Modeste.
What time is Man City vs. Borussia Dortmund?
Manchester City host Borussia Dortmund at the Etihad Stadium. The match starts at 8:00 p.m. BST on Wednesday, September 14.
| UK | USA | Canada | Australia | |
| Date | Wed, Sep. 14 | Wed, Sep. 14 | Wed, Sep. 14 | Thu, Sep. 15 |
| Time | 20:00 BST | 15:00 ET | 15:00 ET | 05:00 AEST |
How to watch Man City vs. Borussia Dortmund
| UK | USA | Canada | Australia | |
| TV channel | BT Sport 2 | – | – | – |
| Streaming | BT Sport website/app | Paramount+/ViX+/ViX | DAZN | Stan Sport |
UK: BT Sport are the exclusive broadcasters of live Champions League matches. City’s second match is on BT Sport 2 and available on the website/app.
USA: Paramount+/ Vix and ViX+ will stream the match live.
Canada: Follow the action live exclusively on DAZN.
Australia: Fans in Australia can watch the game via Stan Sport.
Sources:
