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The Daily Bee (January 17th, 2019): BVB have problems on defense ahead of RB Leipzig clash

Balerdi will travel back to South America

Borussia Dortmund v Club Brugge - UEFA Champions League Group A Photo by Martin Rose/Getty Images
  • Balerdi to participate in U20 South American Championship

Borussia Dortmund’s new acquisition, Leonardo Balerdi, will travel to Chile where he will participate in the U20 South American Championship with the Argentinian national team. The tournament will start on Sunday and Argentina is in a group with Paraguay, Ecuador, Uruguay and Peru. The final will take place on February 13th so if they go all the way Balerdi will miss a few weeks.

  • BVB’s defensive problems

Borussia Dortmund will likely have only one centerback available for the upcoming game against RB Leipzig. Manuel Akanji is out indefinitely, Balerdi is with the national team and Dan-Axel Zagadou and Ömer Toprak have missed practice today, both might be questionable for the game.

This could leave Abdou Diallo as the only available central defender and even he might not be at 100% because he just returned from an injury. Potential replacements are Julian Weigl who played the last game of the Hinrunde against Gladbach as a centerback or even Jeremy Toljan who has played there during the two friendlies in Marbella.

Daily Buzz: With BVB’s current defensive woes, should Leipzig be considered the favorite?