Bundesliga
Thomas Meunier: "Sancho wants you to know he's better than you"
Borussia Dortmund newcomer Thomas Meunier has revealed what it's like playing with Jadon Sancho, drawing parallels with his time at Paris Saint-Germain in the same team as Kylian Mbappe.
Meunier joined Dortmund in summer 2020, after winning three Ligue 1 titles during a four-year stint with PSG.
The 29-year-old Belgium international brings a wealth of experience to the table, but admits getting to grips with BVB's whippersnappers is proving quite the challenge, with Sancho the chief culprit.
Watch: Jadon Sancho under the tactical microscope
"Jadon is a bit sneaky," Meunier told former Dortmund defender Patrick Owomoyela in an interview for BVB TV. "He always wants to nutmeg you or dribble past you. It's a bit like a humiliation. He wants you to know that he's better than you.
"Mbappe is the same - they are a bit arrogant in the way they play. There are to ways to stop them - you take the ball or take then man" (smiles).
Meunier has stayed on the right side of the law in his first two outings as a Dortmund player. He played in 57 minutes of BVB's DFB Cup first-round rout of 3. Liga club Duisburg and went the distance as the Black-Yellows opened their Bundesliga campaign with a 3-0 home win against Borussia Mönchengladbach, not putting a foot wrong.
Sancho, as well as 17-year-olds Jude Bellingham and Gio Reyna, accounted for three of Dortmund's five goals in Duisburg, while the latter duo combined for the opener on Bundesliga Matchday 1.
"They're fantastic, not only as footballers, but as people," Meunier said of Dortmund's ever-increasing pool of prodigious talent. "They're all conscious of the fact we have the quality to do something great. We all want to win titles, and everyone is going in the same directions. They can be 17 or 25 - it makes no difference."
One of the more senior squad members, Meunier is expected to be Dortmund's first-choice on the right-hand side of the defence for the foreseeable future. Tucking in behind and overlapping Sancho, the Belgian is confident he can add even more firepower to BVB's free-scoring ranks.
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"I'm an attacking player, so I can score a goal in every game," he said ahead of the Matchday 2 trip to Augsburg and Supercup showdown with treble winners Bayern Munich. "I might have scored against Gladbach - I was on my own when Gio [Reyna] went down for the penalty. There will always be possibilities [to score].
"But my priority is to be on the pitch every three days. Recovery is the most important thing for that. Being professional is the key to success."