Borussia Dortmund beat Aston Villa in final pre-season game | OneFootball

Scorers: Can 33' (pen), Brandt 35'

Aston Villa fell to defeat against last season's Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund in their final pre-season friendly ahead of the new campaign.

With both sides naming strong sides despite a host of absentees, the hosts took the early initiative at Signal Iduna Park, operating a more energetic style of play under new boss Nuri Sahin and causing Unai Emery's side problems in the opening stages.

It took a spot kick to separate the two sides though, with Ezri Konsa fouling Karim Adeyemi just after the half hour mark, allowing Emre Can to squeeze the ball past Emiliano Martinez to put the hosts in the lead.

Moments later they were two ahead, with Julian Brandt pouncing on a moment of uncertainty from Pau Torres to steal the ball and poke home four yards out.

Villa rallied late on in the half and both John McGinn and Jacob Ramsey will feel that they could have done better with efforts heading into the break.

The second half was an altogether slower affair, regularly punctuated by substitutions as Villa looked for a way back into the game.

Ramsey, a bright spark for Emery's side, wasted two further efforts while returning youngster Cameron Archer also had an excellent chance to reduce the deficit.

But the goal never came, and Dortmund saw out the end of the game professionally to walk away with a 2-0 win over the Villans.