GOAL! Borussia Dortmund 2-2 Real Madrid (Schurrle)

 

Zinedine Zidane's men left it late to beat Sporting Lisbon last time out but face the toughest task of their group campaign in Germany

Madrid, for their part, narrowly missed out on setting a new Liga record at the weekend. Their 2-2 draw with Las Palmas at the Gran Canaria saw them fall short of becoming the first ever team to record 17 consecutive wins.
As it stands in Group F, Dortmund and Madrid will be confident of progressing at the expence of Sporting and Legia Warsaw, but this game and the reverse fixture at the Bernabeu should go a huge way to deciding who tops the group and gets a beneficial tie in the last 16.
So both teams are in fine form and this fixture has given us some classics in recent years.

We're promised plenty of goals at the Signal Iduna!

After leaving it desperately late to overcome Sporting in their first Champions League group stage game, Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid have an altogether tougher prospect with tonight’s trip to the Signal Iduna Park where they will face an in-form Borussia Dortmund side.
Thomas Tuchel’s side have been scoring for fun this month, with back-to-back 6-0 victories against Legia Warsaw in Champions League Gameweek 1 and SV Darmstadt 98 in the Bundesliga.
They followed that up with a 5-1 hammering of Wolfsburg and a 3-1 victory over SC Freiburg.


Starting XI: Navas, Carvajal, Sergio Ramos, Varane, Danilo, Kroos, Modric, James, Bale, Ronaldo, Benzema
Subs: Casilla, Pepe, Coentrao, Kovacic, Lucas Vazquez, Morata, Isco

Flashback!

Before Robert Lewandowski moved to Bayern Munich, the Pole was an icon at Borussia Dortmund.
Four seasons ago he scored four times as Jurgen Klopp’s side thrashed Madrid 4-1 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final clash.
Die Borussen went on to reach the final but lost to Bayern 2-1 at Wembley, and Lewandowski joined the Bavarian giants just over a year later.

Borussia Dortmund's line-up confirmed

Finally, we have Borussia Dortmund’s starting line-up for tonight’s match.
Starting XI: Burki, Piszczek, Sokratis, Ginter, Schmelzer, Castro, Weigl, Guerreiro, Dembele, Gotze, Aubameyang
Subs: Weidenfeller, Mor, Rode, Ramos, Schurrle, Pulisic, Passlack

                             Zidane has denied talk of a rift with Cristiano Ronaldo
 
“I understand the level of attention it received but it is what it is. I took the decision in the best (interests) of the player and that’s not going to change anything.
“We have spoken about it. I’m not dumb and he’s intelligent. We all have the same objectives, the two of us and the rest of the team.”

Zidane plays down talk of Ronaldo rift

Zinedine Zidane denied talk of a rift between him and Cristiano Ronaldo after substituting the Portuguese during Real Madrid’s draw with Las Palmas over the weekend.
Ronaldo was visibly annoyed at being withdrawn and didn’t make eye contact with his manager on his way back to the substitutes’ bench.
But at a press conference in Dortmund on Monday, Zidane said: “Everything is normal.”
The 44-year-old added: “Cristiano wasn’t the only one angry after the game but it’s over now and we are thinking about tomorrow’s game.

                         The Portuguese was all smiles in training on Monday


Dortmund continued to push and eventually levelled two minutes before half-time, when Castro’s free-kick was punched out by Keylor Navas and hit Raphael Varane, bouncing back into the goalkeeper’s net, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on hand to ensure it went over the line.
Varian made amends in the second half when he stabbed home from close range after Benzema’s shot bounced back off the woodwork, but Schurrle’s late blaster saw the scores levelled in the nick of time for the hosts.

Andre Schurrle’s late strike earned Borussia Dortmund a 2-2 draw with Real Madrid on a thrilling night in Germany.
Dortmund made all the early running, with electric passing moves cutting through Madrid’s defence, although their finishing was poor.
Keylor Navas made a good stop from Gonzalo Castro’s free-kick, while Ousmane Dembele twice fired over the bar.
Madrid broke the deadlock in the 17th minute, when Gareth Bale’s back-heel sat up nicely for Cristiano Ronaldo to dispatch with aplomb.