It Was All Yellow

Finally the moment we have all been waiting for - as Borussia Dortmund & Schalke 04 stepped into a near-empty 80,000 capacity Signal Iduna Park for the first match of the German Bundesliga after the coronavirus pandemic.

And it was Borussia Dortmund who looked like they'd never been away; stroking the ball around and showing brilliant off-the-ball movement to dominate this contest. It was 28 minutes when the imperious Julian Brandt did a lovely back-flick to release Thorgan Hazard down the right flank. Eden's younger brother produced a superb driven cross to be turned home brilliantly by the man-of-the-moment; Norwegian superstar Erling Braut Haaland.

Schalke 04 were struggling to live up with Dortmund in this Ruhr Valley derby; and on the stroke of half-time it was not the greatest surprise when left wing-back Raphael Guerreiro latched on to Brandt's pass and fired them two up. It all started from the industrious pressing of Haaland; who co-erced Schalke 'keeper Markus Schubert into an erroneous clearance.

Schalke had it all to do now; and their task became even more insurmountable when Hazard - himself having a dazzling game - latched onto that man Brandt's pass again - and fired home unerringly for his side's third goal in a classic counter-attack. And the icing on the cake came in the 63rd minute; when Guerreiro got his second of the game with a lovely outside-of-the-foot flick-finish after an incisive Haaland pass.

This was supposed to be a closely-contested derby but it was anything but. There was no fans; and no Coldplay. But it was all Yellow.