Dortmund aim for payback as they travel to Wembley

Tottenham Hotspur host Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday night with the hope they can contain Lucien Favre’s men.

The German outfit will be looking for payback against Spurs as they travel to Wembley Stadium for the first leg of their round of 16 Champions League knockout stage tie.

Dortmund have never beaten Mauricio Pochettino’s side in the Champions League with last season’s affairs being the only time they have met in Europe’s finest competition.

Spurs won 3-1 at White Hart Lane and 2-1 at Signal Iduna Park, this game will be one of the more interesting ties with the hosts being five points off the top of the Premier League with a game in hand while their opponents are top of the Bundesliga.

It took a late turnaround in Group B for the home side to even have a chance of making the knockout stages but it came after Spurs managed the almost impossible drawing 1-1 with Barcelona at the Camp Nou. With Inter drawing with PSV, the English side just managed to slip through on head to head record.

Lucas Moura scored as Tottenham achieved the point they needed to qualify – (C) Clive Rose/Getty Images

Dortmund cruised to the top of Group A  with a 2-0 loss to Atletico Madrid at the Wanda Metropolitano being the only time the German side failed to secure at least a point. Club Brugge and AS Monaco were also in the group as Brugge managed to gain Europa League football.

Even with injuries and lack of spending, Tottenham have managed to prove that they have the power to be a footballing powerhouse moving forward and a win against one of the most feared side’s in Europe could take their season to the next level.

For the current table toppers, a win would put them in a great place going into the second leg and will be just another crown in an outstanding season where they are proving that they are the real deal time and time again.

Going into this match Pochettino’s men have overcome their slight blip that saw them get knocked out of two cups in four with wins against Leicester, Newcastle and Watford being more like what the London side expect from their side.

Dortmund have also been part of a dip in form but they are yet to overcome there’s after failing to win in their last three matches, two draws including a late surrender to Hoffenheim and getting knocked out of the DFB-Pokal by Werder Bremen on penalties.

Dortmund are wounded after their DFB Pokal loss to Werder Bremen – (C) REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler

The timing of the match might just put this match at Wembley in Dortmund’s favour, Pochettino certainly thinks that after being Leicester the Argentine expressed his frustration:

“I was saying before about how upset I am. I feel so embarrassed because I can accept to play today if Dortmund play today and then we play Wednesday, but I cannot understand why we’re playing with a massive disadvantage.”

“Twenty-four hours in this type of competition, the last 16, is a massive disadvantage. It doesn’t mean that we’re not going to compete. For me, I’m going to stop describing the real situation, but I think there is no sense.”

Dortmund chief Michael Zorc spoke about youth development ahead of Jadon Sancho’s return to England:

“I think you can recognise this style but maybe it’s not typical English because you can see this also in France, as with Ousmane Dembélé and Kylian Mbappé.”

“These fast, quick technical skilled players on a high level. We exported Leroy Sané but my feeling is that in this moment England is producing some more high technique individual players compared to Germany.”

“We are opened minded for these top, top talents in England but we did this before in France, with Dan-Aexl Zagadou from PSG and Dembélé. When you watch now what happened in the last six months, there are some German clubs that are trying to go this way as well.”

Tottenham have six players out at the moment though two of those are expected to make a return for this tie, those being Erik Lamela who is recovering from a back spasm while Eric Dier will also likely return as he returns from a virus.

Recently added Champions League squad member Vincent Janssen is out along with Ben Davies and they are unknown when they’ll be back in the plans of their Argentine manager. While Harry Kane (ankle) and Dele Alli (hamstring) will be a huge loss for the hosts.

As for the away side have four players that didn’t board the plane to London with Marco Reus (torn muscle fibres), Julian Weigl (flu), Paco Alcácer (shoulder inflammation) and Lukas Piszczek (heel pain).

Harry Kane leads the line for goals with the Englishman netting 20 in 31 appearances for the Lilywhites, as he isn’t featuring their second top scorer is Heung-Min Son with 15 in the same amount of matches.

Though their top scorer is missing their leading curator isn’t as Christian Eriksen has set up 11 times in 32 matches, his creativity will be key to beating Dortmund.

Dortmund are to be without their top two goalscorers with Reus and Alcácer both out; however, Englishman Sancho gets to touch down on English soil for the first time since making the switch to North Rhine-Westphalia, he’s provided the most assists with 13 in 28 matches during his time in Germany.

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