The Daily Bee (March 18th, 2021): FC Koln vs Borussia Dortmund to Go Ahead

Good Morning Fear The Wall!

The final eight teams in the Champions League are now set, with the following teams progressing to the next round: Porto, Borussia Dortmund, PSG, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Man City, Bayern Munich, Chelsea. The draw will take place on Friday 19th March from midday (CET). Only four games away from a final...

No More Positive Covid Tests for FC Koln

After a member of the Koln staff tested positive for coronavirus this week, there were some concerns that their game against BVB at the weekend would have to be rescheduled. However, all tests since have come back negative, including the member of staff that originally tested positive. It looks like it was probably a false positive.

Either way, the game is still going ahead as planned, and that doesn’t look likely to change at this point.

This is very good news for BVB, as they really cannot afford to mess with their schedule any more. It’s already very congested!

Gareth Southgate Won’t Include Jude Bellingham in England Squad

News broke yesterday that Jude Bellingham and Gio Reyna would not be allowed to join their national team’s during the international break, due to restrictions that Germany has placed on anyone coming into the country from the UK or the US. Both players would have been force to quarantine on their return, and therefore would have been out of action for Borussia Dortmund. Michael Zorc stated that the club intended to block either player from joining their national team, because they couldn’t allow players to leave if it would cause the club significant harm.

It is now being reported by Bild that England Manager, Gareth Southgate, will not call-up Jude, making the whole situation a little easier for everybody. This seems like a really obvious, sensible solution to the situation, but not one that you could guarantee would happen. So credit to Gareth for doing the right thing and avoiding any conflict between the English FA and BVB, and not putting Bellingham in a difficult position.

It is a messy situation as is, because it’s easy to see both sides of the argument. Yes, Jude is a BVB employee, and they pay a lot more than the England national team, so it’s only fair that they would be against a call-up that causes them a great deal of harm, but it’s also understandable that England, and likely Jude, will be disappointed. It’s a shame Bellingham won’t get the chance to add to his caps, but he’ll have plenty of time for that. It’s just good to see the situation resolved amicably.

The Mahmoud Memes are Growing

Rumors linking Mahmoud Dahoud to various Premier League clubs are now popping up after a series of excellent performances for BVB in recent weeks.

I don’t have anything to say about it. It’s the Mail, so I don’t really care. It’s just fun to see the Dahoud legend continue to grow.

The Daily Buzz

What is your order of preference for the Champions League draw? Mine is:

1. Porto
2. Liverpool
3. PSG
4. Real Madrid
5. Chelsea
6. Bayern Munich
7. Man City

Update: Bellingham is Selected for England Duty

After all that, it turns out Bellingham has been called up. I’m not sure if I’ve simply misunderstood what Bild is saying, or if Bild got this one wrong, but Southgate has included Bellingham in his squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.

Southgate has also acknowledged that it is unlikely that Bellingham joins the rest of the squad, due to the coronavirus restrictions. So who knows anymore.