Head coach Enrico Maaßen fielded a very young side for the second game, handing first-team debuts to new arrival Arne Engels and U19 goalkeeper Marcel Lubik. The match was played on one of the training pitches used by FC Union for their camp, in Campoamor.

Barça keeper and Germany international Marc-André ter Stegen had some pointed comments for any of his teammates who might have wanted to let themselves off the hook for this one — after all, Inter Milan’s earlier win on Wednesday sealed Barça’s Champions League fate, and it was understandably deflating.

Due to the FIFA World Cup at the end of last year, the current Bundesliga season will end abnormally late. There will still be four games in May, the last month of this season. The German Football League (DFL) have announced the exact dates for the final four matchdays of the season, 31 to 34.                                                                            

Did you know that… …Dortmund have made their best start to a year in a long...

Press conference with Marco Rose and Janis Blaswich ahead of the second-leg round of 16 fixture in the UCL

Bo Svensson was unable to put an exact percentage on where his team are at in Friday’s press conference ahead of his side’s trip to Aue on Sunday (18:30 CEST). The head coach, however, is convinced that his players have made progress since the training camp in Grassau. “We are where I believed we would be at at this point in time. We are further along than at the end of the training camp and we are ready for the challenges that lie ahead.”

The international break is over. Josha Vagnoman made his debut for Germany, Silas for DR Congo, while Konstantinos Mavropanos played every minute.

Goals: 1-0 Siebatcheu (31), 2-0 Becker (50), 3-0 Knoche (54), 3-1 Lukebakio (85)

VfL’s second milestone meeting of the second half of the 2022/23 campaign takes them to Gelsenkirchen, where they face bottom-of-the-table Schalke 04 at the Veltins-Arena on Friday 10 February (kick-off 20:30 CET) in what will be the teams’ 50th Bundesliga encounter. While Niko Kovac’s Wolves have lost their last two games in the league, promoted Schalke have managed to grind out back-to-back goalless draws. However, if their recent record against S04 is anything to go by, the Green-and-Whites can be confident of returning to winning ways against Thomas Reis’ team.

Reports suggest Pochettino is the Villa owners’ preferred candidate to replace Gerrard, who was sacked soon after his side’s 3-0 defeat to Fulham on Thursday despite awkwardly insisting he was a “fighter” in his post-match interview.