Borussia Dortmund and Fluminense got their FIFA Club World Cup campaign in Group F off with a goalless draw on Tuesday evening.
Dortmund started new signing Jobe Bellingham on the bench along with Felix Nmecha, while Fluminense preferred Everaldo in attack ahead of German Cano.
Fluminense made a promising start and pushed the Bundesliga giants to the edge, with Everaldo and Jhon Arias seeing a lot of the ball in the forward areas.
Arias troubled the Germans around the midway point of the first half when he came in on the near side and drew a smart save from goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.
Ivorian international Serhou Guirassy came close to making the breakthrough a little later, but he couldn’t beat goalkeeper Fabio.
Dortmund continued to struggle in the second half, as Fluminense remained fluid on the ball and picked their passes relatively easy all the way through.
The dominant spell nearly paid dividends when a switch of play released Everaldo to hold up top for the on-rushing Aguston Canobbio, but Kobel parried, who fired straight at Kobel.
Substitutions for the Black and Yellow at the same time saw Bellingham come in for Pascal Grob to make his debut while Nmecha replaced Karim Adeyemi.
Niko Kovac’s men didn’t drop their heads and fancied the breakthrough in the closing stages through a snap shot from the area by Marcel Sabitzer, but Fabio was able to make the save.
Fabio had to make himself big again in the third minute of stoppage time when he pulled across to parry a snap shot from Niklas Sule, as the two sides settled for a point each.