Aleksandar Mitrovic once revealed a secret to Mail Sport. He is an avid chess player, inspired by his father, who was a Serbian champion.
You need patience and subtlety to excel at that game. On Sunday, here in Gelsenkirchen, Mitrovic will be both in a hurry and as subtle as the brick he once threw, as a boy, through a train window. He has a point to prove and just 90 minutes to do so.
He goes up against John Stones, a six-time Premier League winner, and Marc Guehi, one of the division’s emerging talents — company with whom Mitrovic was deemed not good enough to compete.