On Saturday evening, Borussia Dortmund secured an unspectacular 1-0 win over Hannover 96. "It certainly wasn’t a classic," said BVB sporting director Michael Zorc. However, their upcoming match in London against Arsenal on Tuesday (20:45 CET, live on Sky) has been circled on the calendar for weeks. Moreover football fans in England and Germany alike are expecting a top-quality, highly competitive encounter between two teams renowned for their creativity and attacking style of play. The match will also see German internationals Sven Bender and Mesut Özil go head-to-head.
"The match against Hannover was extremely tough, but the last few weeks have been difficult too. Some players were away, others were injured, only a few were training," Sven Bender told DFB.de. Bender himself was only able to participate in part of the team’s match preparations on Thursday after sustaining muscle stiffness in his lumbar vertebrae and adductors, an injury termed by Jürgen Klopp as "all-over bruising".
Bender fit at the last minute
As has so often been the case in his career, the German international regained his fitness at the last minute, having been forced to miss the internationals against Ireland and Sweden after giving his all in the preceding matches, a situation that is also all too familiar.
On top of all that, the 24-year-old is now returning to Arsenal and to the Emirates Stadium, where he suffered a double jaw fracture in a Champions League group match in 2011. Two years on, metal plates are still in place to stabilise his jaw. "Thanks for reminding me," he told DFB.de when asked, "but what I remember that evening above all is that I was having a decent game until the collision." He is keen to produce a similarly strong performance on Tuesday.
"It’ll be a battle"
And so, after Saturday’s somewhat muted performance against Hannover, Sven Bender is expecting “a very lively battle” on Tuesday, where he will meet perhaps the liveliest opponent of them all: Mesut Özil.
The two make quite a pair. Mesut Özil is a footballing genius – graceful, stylish, gallant and fleet-footed. Sven Bender is simply Sven Bender, a footballer who never gives up, no matter what. After Arsenal’s recent 2-0 Champions League victory over Napoli, manager Arsene Wenger enthused: “If you see Mesut on a pitch and don’t immediately fall in love with him, then you know nothing about football.” English newspaper The Guardian was equally fulsome in its praise, referring to the player a "German wizard" in the wake of the match. As for Bender, no one sums up his determination and grit better than team-mate Nuri Sahin: "Manni goes for balls with his head that I would never go near with my foot." An exciting combination, all things considered.
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On Saturday evening, Borussia Dortmund secured an unspectacular 1-0 win over Hannover 96. "It certainly wasn’t a classic," said BVB sporting director Michael Zorc. However, their upcoming match in London against Arsenal on Tuesday (20:45 CET, live on Sky) has been circled on the calendar for weeks. Moreover football fans in England and Germany alike are expecting a top-quality, highly competitive encounter between two teams renowned for their creativity and attacking style of play. The match will also see German internationals Sven Bender and Mesut Özil go head-to-head.
"The match against Hannover was extremely tough, but the last few weeks have been difficult too. Some players were away, others were injured, only a few were training," Sven Bender told DFB.de. Bender himself was only able to participate in part of the team’s match preparations on Thursday after sustaining muscle stiffness in his lumbar vertebrae and adductors, an injury termed by Jürgen Klopp as "all-over bruising".
Bender fit at the last minute
As has so often been the case in his career, the German international regained his fitness at the last minute, having been forced to miss the internationals against Ireland and Sweden after giving his all in the preceding matches, a situation that is also all too familiar.
On top of all that, the 24-year-old is now returning to Arsenal and to the Emirates Stadium, where he suffered a double jaw fracture in a Champions League group match in 2011. Two years on, metal plates are still in place to stabilise his jaw. "Thanks for reminding me," he told DFB.de when asked, "but what I remember that evening above all is that I was having a decent game until the collision." He is keen to produce a similarly strong performance on Tuesday.
"It’ll be a battle"
And so, after Saturday’s somewhat muted performance against Hannover, Sven Bender is expecting “a very lively battle” on Tuesday, where he will meet perhaps the liveliest opponent of them all: Mesut Özil.
The two make quite a pair. Mesut Özil is a footballing genius – graceful, stylish, gallant and fleet-footed. Sven Bender is simply Sven Bender, a footballer who never gives up, no matter what. After Arsenal’s recent 2-0 Champions League victory over Napoli, manager Arsene Wenger enthused: “If you see Mesut on a pitch and don’t immediately fall in love with him, then you know nothing about football.” English newspaper The Guardian was equally fulsome in its praise, referring to the player a "German wizard" in the wake of the match. As for Bender, no one sums up his determination and grit better than team-mate Nuri Sahin: "Manni goes for balls with his head that I would never go near with my foot." An exciting combination, all things considered.
How does Bender plan to stop this "top Gunner", who put on another commanding performance in Arsenal’s 4-1 defeat of Norwich City on Saturday, scoring two goals in the process? The defensive midfielder’s answer is typical of both him and Borussia: "We don’t want to stop Özil, we want to stop Arsenal." Bender’s captain, Roman Weidenfeller, agrees: "We’re not playing FC Özil." BVB goalkeeper Weidenfeller goes on to add that although the Gelsenkirchen-born Özil is indeed a good player and certainly showed his quality while at Real Madrid, "we still managed to beat Real". Twice, in fact, in a single Champions League season.
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Off to London full of confidence
As a result, Dortmund will board their plane to London today full of confidence. After all, last year’s Champions League finalists no longer have reason to fear anyone, not even Mesut Özil.
BVB sporting director Michael Zorc conceded that it looks as though "he [Özil] is exactly the kind of player that Arsenal were missing before." Nevertheless, he believes Dortmund still have significant upward potential, and can shift up a gear into a more focused and consistent "Champions League mode" after their underwhelming but nonetheless useful 1-0 win against Hannover.
In any event, the match at the Emirates Stadium will be an entirely different and presumably much improved one from which both Borussia Dortmund and Sven Bender will want to emerge intact.
