The fall of the “Yellow Wall.”

Borussia Dortmund has reluctantly accepted its punishment for egregious fan behaviour in Feb. 4’s 1-0 defeat of RB Leipzig by vacating the Sudtribune for next Saturday’s visit from VfL Wolfsburg.

Five days after the hosting of Leipzig, there were found to be 32 cases under investigation by Dortmund police after a minority of Die Borussen support attacked visiting fans – 10 of whom were injured. The local law enforcement noted that people were spat at and attacked with stones and glass bottles, regardless of whether they were children, women, or families.

The bile on the banners of some of the home contingent also shocked the Bundesliga and the wider German football community. Repulsed by Leipzig’s funding from energy drink giant Red Bull – hence the RB in the club’s name – banners were unfurled branding it “football’s enemy,” claiming that “football belongs to us,” and ordering its sporting director, Ralf Rangnick, who has suffered from depression, to “hang yourself,” noted The Telegraph’s Evan Bartlett.

(Courtesy: @BVB)

Dortmund reiterated that it has apologised to Leipzig officials for the conduct of its fans, but did suggest that the “Yellow Wall” closure was excessive. It has pledged to reimburse those with tickets who weren’t involved in the Leipzig violence, as the North Rhine-Westphalia outfit continues to prepare measures and sanctions against the perpetrators.

“It must be possible to go to a stadium with children and family, especially at Dortmund,” said manager Thomas Tuchel three days after the disappointing scenes at the Westfalenstadion.

“I have not perceived it as a wall of hate, I perceived it as very emotional, very supportive,” he added on a stand that has been cited as a model for “safe standing” practices elsewhere in Europe. “I saw the banners, just the sheer number of them. But I did not read them. And there is a major difference between displaying banners and what happened outside the stadium.

“It hurts the soul, and it hurts the fairness, but I did not see a wall of hate.”

Der BVB, coming off the back of a listless performance in a 2-1 loss at bottom-placed SV Darmstadt 98, takes on Portuguese Primeira Liga leader Benfica in Tuesday’s Champions League Round of 16 tilts.

It will then host 14th-placed Wolfsburg in an uncharacteristically cavernous Westfalenstadion next weekend.

Steve Smith, the Baltimore Ravens’ leading receiver in 2014, retired. Kamar Aiken, the go-to target in 2015, is an unrestricted free agent. And Mike Wallace, the most productive wideout last season, has been mentioned as a salary-cap casualty.

Who is going to step up into a leading role for Baltimore in 2017? The Ravens believe it could be slow-developing first-round pick Breshad Perriman.

“I sure hope that Breshad Perriman becomes a true No. 1,” coach John Harbaugh said at the end of the season. “To me, there are signs that is possible. But he has a ways to go; he has a lot of work to do to get it done. You see the radius and you see the speed, and I think you see that here is a guy who has a chance.”

In order for Perriman to become the No. 1 receiver, he has to become more than a two-dimensional one. A majority of his 33 receptions from last season came on either fly or drag routes. Perriman proved he can run past cornerbacks deep downfield and he can zip past defenders after catching short passes in stride. The rest of his game remains a question mark.

His limited route tree is a big factor why he wasn’t more involved in the offense. Perriman ran 320 routes last season and he caught a pass on just 10.3 percent of them, which ranked 64th in the league among wide receivers with at least 30 catches. He is more of a project than the Ravens anticipated. Coaches had to start with the basics with Perriman, teaching him how to properly line up in a stance.

When you look at the Ravens’ top receivers in the past — specifically Smith and Derrick Mason — they were able to get open on their route-running ability and didn’t rely solely on their speed. They were able to get off the line for slants, they shook off defenders on comeback routes and they got out of their breaks on out patterns.

“The thing that I like most about it is now I know exactly what I need to work on,” Perriman said. “I am excited.”

Taking a wide receiver early in the draft is the best way to find a No. 1 receiver. Over the past three seasons, six of the top nine players in receiving yards were selected in the first round: Julio Jones, Odell Beckham Jr., Demaryius Thomas, DeAndre Hopkins, Mike Evans and A.J. Green.

Some of that work involves meeting up with quarterback Joe Flacco. The first time Perriman caught a pass from Flacco last year was Aug. 22, and it was apparent that Flacco didn’t fully trust Perriman.

Berlin – Germany’s World Cup winner Mario Gotze has been left out of Borussia Dortmund’s squad for Tuesday’s Champions League last 16, first-leg, clash against Benfica.

The 24-year-old has fallen out of favour with coach Thomas Tuchel after a string of below-par performances and is struggling with a leg injury, which kept him out of Saturday’s shock 2-1 defeat at Bundesliga bottom side Darmstadt.

“For him, the game in Lisbon came a bit too soon,” Dortmund’s director of sport Michael Zorc told BVB.de.

Injury and loss of form mean Gotze, who scored the winning goal in the 2014 World Cup final, has played just 24 minutes of football so far in 2017.

Dortmund has been boosted with the return of both captain Marcel Schmelzer and Lukasz Piszczek, who missed the Darmstadt defeat with injury.

Wingers Ousmane Dembele and Marco Reus have both shaken off knocks picked up in Darmstadt.

Tuesday’s fixture at the Estadio da Luz will be the first meeting between Benfica and Dortmund since the first round of the 1963-64 European Cup, a tie the German club won 6-2 on aggregate.

The second leg in Germany is scheduled for March 8.

With Arsenal set for a Bavarian trip to play Bayern Munich, one would assume German World Cup winner Mesut Ozil would play a part in Arsene Wenger’s plans for the first match of a two-legged tilt.

Perhaps not.

“I felt he was not completely confident technically,” Wenger told reporters, courtesy of the Guardian. “That’s a problem because you think he can deliver something special.”

Yet to score in 2017 after a red-hot start to the season saw the Gelsenkirchen-born playmaker bag six goals in his first ten matches in all competitions, Ozil has looked off the pace.

With his drop in form coinciding with Arsenal’s dire stretch of unconvincing results, Wenger concedes that something is amiss with his star table-setter.

“He did things that he is not used to doing. He needs to find confidence again. He misses chances that don’t look unfeasible,” the Frenchman added.

Wenger also admitted that he spoke to Ozil about his form on Friday, with the recent displays of benched trio Olivier Giroud, Danny Welbeck, and Lucas Perez only complicating Arsenal’s squad selection conundrum.

After winning a Champions League group for the first time since 2011-12, Arsenal holds a slight advantage over the Bavarian giant courtesy of playing the second leg at home, and with that, Wenger appears to understand how vital a positive performance in the first leg is despite his side’s recent dip in form.

“Experience helps to anticipate the problems that you face when it doesn’t work,” Wenger offered. “You know that if you do not win the confidence drops even more. That is not what is needed to go into a game like Bayern in the Champions League.”