Borussia Dortmund will not train at the Santiago Bernabeu, fearing ‘spies’: Report

BERLIN – Borussia Dortmund have opted not to train at the Santiago Bernabeu ahead of their Champions League final rematch against Real Madrid on Oct 22, fearing there will be “spies” monitoring the session and potentially picking up some tactical clues.

The sides meet in a Champions League group-stage clash, with German tabloid Bild claiming Dortmund have decided against the customary training session to get a feel of the venue ahead of their tie. The German side will instead have their last session in Dortmund before flying out to the Spanish capital.

On the spying accusations, Real coach Carlo Ancelotti said: “We know it all about the rival team. We watch all their games. There’s no secrets, I have enough information about the team and how they’ve played recently.”

Dortmund head into the game amid worrying form and criticism of coach Nuri Sahin.

Surprise finalists Dortmund dominated the first half and much of the second at Wembley in June, but were felled by a trademark Real counter-punch, conceding twice in the final 20 minutes to lose last term’s showpiece 2-0. Since then, coach Edin Terzic has left, falling victim to a poor domestic season with a fifth-placed finish.

Sahin, a Dortmund junior who had an unsuccessful short stint at Real as a player, has overseen 10 games in all competitions.

Now he faces the biggest test of his mettle to date, with his Dortmund team having looked inconsistent and still appearing to lack a clear tactical identity.

Dortmund started the Bundesliga season with a solid 2-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, but were later thrashed 5-1 by VfB Stuttgart.

Sahin’s side are seventh in the Bundesliga, but are top of the 36-team Champions League table after wins at Club Brugge and against Celtic at home.

In front of their 82,000-strong Westfalenstadion home crowd, Dortmund have won five from five across all competitions, scoring 19 goals and conceding six. On the road, however, their two wins in five matches have come against fourth division Phonix Lubeck, and Brugge, who sit fourth in the Belgian league.

Real have won six from six at home in all competitions, scoring 17 and conceding just four.

Up front, the German side look set to be lacking firepower with Karim Adeyemi, Julien Duranville, Giovanni Reyna and attack-minded defender Yan Couto on the injury list. Aside from the ever-reliable Gregor Kobel in goal, Dortmund’s only trump card is the form of striker Serhou Guirassy, who has 12 goals in his past eight games for club and country.

An 83rd-minute Guirassy header took Dortmund to a 2-1 win against St Pauli on Oct 18, but an “extremely annoyed” Sahin was not in the mood to celebrate.

“It’s not acceptable, we have to do better. We conceded a goal like that against Celtic where we didn’t defend well. We conceded a goal like that against Union (Berlin), and now it’s happened again,” Sahin said of their poor defending. AFP