Referee pulls wrong card on Nwaneri as Arsenal loanee endures another difficult Dortmund outing

Ethan Nwaneri’s difficult start to life at Borussia Dortmund took a surreal turn on Saturday when referee Daniel Schlager accidentally pulled a red card from his pocket instead of a yellow in the opening minutes of their Bundesliga draw with Union Berlin. Schlager quickly corrected the error, allowing the Arsenal loanee to continue, but Nwaneri was unable to capitalise on the reprieve and was substituted shortly after the hour mark in a match that ended goalless.

The incident came just seconds after Nwaneri caught Tom Rothe with a heavy challenge — one Bild described as ‘brutal’ and part of a team start it called ‘nothing short of explosive’. Having picked up the booking so early, the 19-year-old was always operating under a constraint, and the German media were largely unimpressed with what followed.

Local newspaper Ruhr Nachrichten awarded him a 5/10 rating and suggested he has yet to prove his worth at the club. Ran was similarly critical, giving him a 5 for a ‘mostly negative’ performance marked by ‘poor ball control’ and ‘inaccurate finishing’. Goal offered a more charitable view, naming him Dortmund’s most dangerous player during his 60 minutes on the pitch, but even that assessment acknowledged he was ‘largely anonymous’ by other measures.

Dortmund sporting director Nils-Ole Book did not single out Nwaneri but was candid about the team’s collective failings. “We’re disappointed. We wanted to do a lot more,” he said. “To get in behind, you need to play with more courage all over the field. We started doing that far too late. When we’re bolder, we play really good football and are able to put pressure on our opponents.”

Nwaneri, the Premier League’s youngest-ever player, has now made seven appearances for Dortmund across the Bundesliga and Champions League since joining on loan from Arsenal in the summer. He has started four league matches but is yet to feature in the starting XI for a European fixture.

The result compounds a testing week for Dortmund, who suffered a 1-0 defeat to Bodo/Glimt earlier in the competition. They face Azerbaijani side Sabah on Tuesday looking to secure their second European win of the campaign.