Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid




Borussia Dortmund will have the luxury of naming a full strength lineup for the visit of the Spanish champions, with Mats Hummels having got some minutes under his belt in recent weeks following a hamstring injury.

All eyes will be on Mario Gotze, after the stunning revelation of his summer move to Bayern Munich for a fee of 37 million euros. Meanwhile, Sven Bender and Ilkay Gundogan will see off competition from former Blancos midfielder Nuri Sahin and club captain Sebastian Kehl to start in the middle of the park, with Jakub Blaszczykowski preferred to Kevin Grosskreutz on the wing.

Real Madrid has a few injury worries ahead of its visit to the Westfalenstadion. With Alvaro Arbeloa suspended, Sergio Ramos will start at right back, with Pepe and Raphael Varane at the heart of the defence.

Marcelo has a hamstring knock, meaning Fabio Coentrao will start at left back. Elsewhere, Jose Mourinho's men will be more or less at full strength, though Luka Modric and Karim Benzema are nursing minor injuries.



  • Borussia Dortmund overcame Real Madrid in the group stage this season, triumphing 2-1 at home and drawing 2-2 away.
  • Midfielder Nuri Sahin spent one season at the Santiago Bernabeu and a loan period at Liverpool before returning to BVB in January.
  • Jurgen Klopp's side is the only unbeaten team in the competition and knocked Malaga out in the last round.
  • Real Madrid has won just once on 24 visits to Germany and crashed out of the Champions League to Bundesliga opposition at this stage last season.
  • Star playmaker Mesut Ozil (pictured, right) was born in Dortmund's Ruhr heartland and started his career at local rival Schalke.
Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 11 goals in the Champions League this season. He needs three more to match Lionel Messi's total from last year.

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