Sky Blue News: Here Comes Dortmund, Pep Loves Jude, Haaland WC Plan, and More...

Headlines!!! Manchester City are in Dortmund to take on the Yellow Wall. Sky Blue News has all the latest to get you ready for another foray into the USFA Champions League.

Jack Grealish can prove his Man City improvement with Borussia Dortmund redemption - Daniel Murphy - Manchester Evening News

Super Jack is likely to get another shot at securing his place in the starting lineup.

Grealish dropped out of the side for Liverpool in an experiment that backfired. City lost their attacking rhythm and suffered their first defeat of the season, showing that Grealish is more important than his stats may suggest.

They bounced back to winning ways with Grealish back in the side against Brighton and next up is the reverse fixture with Dortmund. If Grealish can put in a top performance against the club which he played so poorly against a few weeks ago it’ll show just how far he has come.

Borussia Dortmund v Manchester City - The Opposition - Manc Pete - Bitter and Blue

Pete has the latest on BVB, including current form and who to watch.

Form

Dortmund go into the match on the back of two successive wins in the Bundesliga. A 2-0 win at Hannover in midweek was followed up with a 5-0 home victory over Vfb Stuttgart. The win at Hannover ended a run of three matches without a win, which saw Dortmund lose 3-2 to FC Koln and 2-0 at surprise Bundesliga leaders Union Berlin. Currently, Dortmund are fifth in the table, with six wins from 11 matches played and four points behind the leaders. Dortmund have so far scored 27 goals in all competitions, but have also conceded 18.

In the Champions League, Dortmund have won two of their four matches, drew their last match with Sevilla and lost 2-1 to the blues, when former Dortmund man Erling Haaland scored a late winner.

Ones to watch

Midfielder Jude Bellingham has taken over Haaland’s goalscoring responsibilities and has six goals to his name so far this season. He has attempted 26 shots from his 15 games played and has a shot accuracy of 54% and a goal conversion rate of 23%. Bellingham has scored twice against City, both times giving Dortmund the lead.

Bernardo Silva offers fresh response to question on Manchester City future - Freddie Pye - City Xtra

Bernardo is focused on the job at hand.

The former AS Monaco playmaker himself hinted at this exact scenario being the case back in early September.

Bernardo Silva said at the time, “There was one offer from one team, no more than that, so it was quite easy for me and for the club because the only offer came quite late.

“So for the club to find a replacement, it wouldn’t be easy. There have been no offers from Spain,” he said.

Now, speaking after the weekend’s 3-1 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League, Bernardo Silva stressed his focus on the ongoing season and achieving success alongside his fellow Manchester City teammates.

‘The whole package’: Pep Guardiola hails Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham - The Guardian

Pep may be enamored with the young English midfielder.

Guardiola, who has meticulously guided Phil Foden’s development at City, suggested Bellingham would not have got the same opportunities in the Premier League. “Borussia Dortmund is the perfect place for young talent to come,” he said.

“Maybe if Jude Bellingham was in England he would go to City, United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal or Tottenham, maybe he would not get the minutes. The best thing for a young player to be better is to play minutes.

“He was 17 when he arrived but it was not just about his quality, how he was leading, his kicking, going to the referee. This guy was something special in terms of his mentality. Now he is 19 and he is already one of the captains. The quality, everybody knows it. The whole package is really good.”

TWO FESTIVE PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES MOVED FOR LIVE TV COVERAGE - Jack Mumford - ManCity.com

A quick look at our recently rescheduled festive features.

City had been scheduled to take on Chelsea on 2 January at 15:00 – but this game will now take place three days later on 5 January with a 20:00 kick-off.

Our meeting with Graham Potter’s side will be shown live on Sky Sports.

Stay tuned to mancity.com for any further fixture changes throughout the season.

We will have full coverage of every match on mancity.com and the official app, including our Matchday Live programme, reaction from players and Pep Guardiola and highlights later that evening.

Pep Guardiola: ‘Erling Braut Haaland to spend World Cup break in Marbella’ - Oliver Thomas - Sports Mole

Haaland will be resting in Spain, but certainly, he wishes he were headed for Qatar.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of City’s Champions League clash away against Haaland’s former club Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday, Guardiola said: “He will be in Marbella for sure, or in Norway. It depends on how he behaves in Marbella as to how good he is for the second half of the season.”

“I’m pretty sure he will love to be at the World Cup and maybe the next one or Euros he will. But he has a house in Marbella, go there, play golf, hopefully, he don’t drink much, eat much and come back fit.”

Guardiola added: “This is the first time in our lives [a winter World Cup has] happened so we don’t know how players will come back from the World Cup.

“If six come back as champions they will be very happy, or they could come back depressed. Some may get knocked out early and have holidays. But loads of players will miss the World Cup because of the insane fixtures. We will see when they come back.”

Kevin De Bruyne Outlines Real Reasons for Manchester City’s Dominance - Emmanuel Odey - Bitter and Blue

And finally... Emmanuel takes a deeper dive into KDB’s post-match comments from Saturday.

Kevin De Bruyne has been instrumental to City in that time frame regularly featuring as the team’s most important player. In an attempt to explain what is really responsible for the team’s success, the Belgian has pinpointed qualities that opposition fans rarely like to give the club credit for.

“...I think this team is set up to go again and again. I think we have shown that over the last seven or eight years. Even if we didn’t win it, we were second or third. We are always fighting to go again and it is a squad with great humility. Even if we won last year, we don’t take it for granted and we want to go again. It is a nice feeling to win and we try to achieve that every year. The hard work comes first and the enjoyment maybe comes later,” De Bruyne said in a recent interview.

Top players are a common denominator among the several top clubs in the English top flight. However, it takes real hunger, hard work and humility to go again and again, season after season, even after achieving success. That in turn helps the team to keep winning and stay at the top.

These are qualities that are rarely associated with Manchester City. The manager, the team and the club as a whole are not usually given credit for these qualities.

There you have it Cityzens. Stay with Bitter and Blue all day to stay up to date on the latest from Borussia Dortmund v Manchester City, and be sure to follow @BitterandBlue1 on Twitter for all the fun during the match.