Jude Bellingham admits he’s ‘not really sure’ how to stop his former team-mate Erling Haaland as Borussia Dortmund prepare to face Man City… with the midfielder calling for his side to ‘stick together’ to try to contain the free-scoring Norwegian forward
- Erling Haaland is set to face his former club Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday
- He has made a stunning start at Man City, scoring 12 goals in seven matches
- Jude Bellingham has conceded that it will be difficult to stop Haaland
- He feels Dortmund’s best chance is to work as a team to keep Haaland quiet
Jude Bellingham has admitted that Borussia Dortmund will have to stop Erling Haaland as a team rather than individually following his flying start to life at Manchester City.
Haaland joined City from Dortmund for £51m in July and has needed very little time to settle in, scoring 12 goals in seven matches for Pep Guardiola’s side.
He netted a brace in City’s Champions League opener last week as Sevilla became the latest team to fail to contain him, and Haaland is now set to face his former club for the first time since leaving them.
Jude Bellingham has admitted it will be difficult for Borussia Dortmund to stop Erling Haaland
Haaland has scored 12 goals in seven matches for Manchester City this season
Bellingham knows Haaland well having spent two years with him at Dortmund, but has conceded that he is ‘not really sure’ how to keep the Norwegian forward out of the game. He has called for Dortmund to work together to try to restrict Haaland’s influence at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.
‘I’m not really sure to be honest!’ Bellingham said at Dortmund’s pre-match press conference on Tuesday when asked how Haaland can be stopped.
‘We’ll have to find out tomorrow.
‘He’s a player with a lot of quality and a lot of physical attributes that make him dangerous and like I said it’s not an individual task, it’s something that the team have to deal with collectively.
Bellingham previously played with Haaland, and thinks Dortmund must ‘stick together’ to try to keep him quiet in the game
‘If we stick together and try to do the right things without the ball then it can be possible.’
Dortmund got their Champions League campaign off to the perfect start when they beat Copenhagen 3-0 last Tuesday, with Bellingham scoring the final goal to seal a comprehensive win.
However, they were then beaten by the same scoreline when they travelled to RB Leipzig on Saturday, leaving them fifth in the Bundesliga, two points behind surprise leaders Union Berlin.
They will now hope to bounce back against City, who dumped them out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage in 2020-21.