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.

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.”

Real Madrid welcomed Gareth Bale back to group training Sunday, marking the Welsh star’s return after being sidelined for nearly three months with an ankle injury that required surgery in late November.

Bale was forced off near the hour mark of Real Madrid’s 2-1 win over Sporting Lisbon on Nov. 22 and diagnosed with a “traumatic dislocation of the peroneal tendons in his right ankle.”

He’s missed 17 matches for the club, but could be made available for the upcoming Champions League Round of 16 tilt against Italian outfit Napoli on Feb. 15 at the Santiago Bernabeu.

In just 16 appearances with Real Madrid this season, the 27-year-old has scored seven goals and recorded three assists. His return will be hailed by manager Zinedine Zidane, who turned to Lucas Vazquez in Bale’s absence.