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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Mark Pirie

Erling Haaland in Rangers fitness sweat as superstar watches on while Dortmund humiliated by Leverkusen

Borussia Dortmund superstar Erling Haaland was missing in action again as his side were humiliated by Bayer Leverkusen.

The 21-year-old has been on the sidelines after picking up a knock against Hoffenheim in January.

And the Norwegian could only watch on as his side flopper against their Bundesliga rivals in a 5-2 thumping less than two weeks before they face Rangers in the Europa League.

The dreadful afternoon was summed up by a comical own goal from Manuel Akanji.

Some dodgy Dortmund defending allowed Leverkusen to break into the box and fire a shot at goal, but the effort was saved by Gregor Kobel.

He could only palm the ball into the path of Akanji, who knocked the ball into his own net.

An own-goal from former Celtic full-back Jeremie Frimpong put Dortmund level, before goals from Florian Wirtz, Robert Andrich, Jonathan Tah and Moussa Diaby made if five for Leverkusen.

Steffen Tigges netted a late consolation but the 10,000 angry fans in the Westfalenstadion booed the team off the park.

The result comes with Rangers in wait with both legs of their Europa League knockout playoff taking place in consecutive weeks on February 17 and 18.

Before kick-off, boss Marco Rose was asked about the injury to Haaland.

He shrugged off the question in his post-match interview, stating: "It's a catastrophic day for us.

"This is not the time to talk about that. We have other problems at the moment."

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