The highest-ranked meeting of matchday six in the Champions League sees fourth-placed Borussia Dortmund welcome third-placed Barcelona to the Westfalenstadion on Wednesday.
Both clubs are on 12 points from their opening five games, and are highly fancied to progress directly to the last 16, via finishing in the top eight.
Match preview
Borussia Dortmund's Jamie Gittens celebrates after scoring on November 27, 2024© Imago
After a routine 3-0 win away in Croatia against Dinamo Zagreb on matchday five to extend their brilliant start in Europe, Dortmund have not won since.
Back-to-back 1-1 draws in the Bundesliga against Bayern Munich and Borussia Monchengladbach leave Dortmund sixth in the Bundesliga, lagging behind in the race for the Champions League places, and 12 points off the Bavarians at the top.
The draw with Bayern ended their 100% start at home, but that remains a phenomenal run of results here under manager Nuri Sahin, with eight wins from their opening nine at the Westfalenstadion this season.
In general, BVB have been very impressive in the Champions League, and they now have the opportunity to win five of their first six matches in the competition since 1997, when they were reigning champions.
Attacking prowess has been the driving factor behind their strong start, with Dortmund having scored 16 goals in their opening five, meaning only Thomas Tuchel and upcoming opponent's manager Hansi Flick have seen their team score more in their first five matches as a Champions League manager than Sahin.
A thrashing of Celtic and a more narrow victory against Sturm Graz has maintained their 100% winning start in this competition at home, but that will be put to the test greatly here.
Dortmund are winless in their four previous meetings with Barcelona; they have never faced an opponent more times in European competition without tasting victory.
Spanish clubs in general have proven problematic, considering Sahin's men have already suffered a 5-2 defeat at the hands of Real Madrid this season, extending their run of games without a clean sheet to nine against teams from the country.
While this represents Dortmund's hardest fixture on paper out of their final three, Barcelona face more tough assignments in January, hosting Atalanta and travelling to Benfica, with only one of their five games so far coming against a side who were seeded in the top two pots.
Barcelona's Raphinha in action on December 3, 2024© Imago
Form has also slipped slightly for Flick's men after early-season signs suggested they could compete for a league and European double.
A 2-2 draw with Real Betis on Saturday, throwing the lead away twice, means Barca have now won just two of their last six games, allowing Real and Atletico Madrid to close the gap at the La Liga summit.
In Europe, the Catalan club have remained consistent though, and recorded a 3-0 win over Brest last time out to maintain their position in the top eight.
Just a few days later though, Barca were beaten at home by Las Palmas, and have not played at Montjuic since, with this now being their third straight away games.
That should not deter them by any means though, considering they have scored 37 in their 13 away games this season, winning six games by three goals or more.
This is also an opportunity for Barca to win five straight UCL games for the first time in four years, and they will look to their forward line for inspiration, considering they have scored at least three goals in all of those four previous wins.
Borussia Dortmund Champions League form:
Borussia Dortmund form (all competitions):
Barcelona Champions League form:
Barcelona form (all competitions):
Team News
Borussia Dortmund forward Karim Adeyemi in September 2024.© Imago
Dortmund are facing trouble in defence after Niklas Sule was forced off at the weekend after taking a knock to his right ankle, joining Waldemar Anton, who continues to recover from a muscle problem, on the sidelines.
Julian Brandt and Karim Adeyemi are both in a race against time to be fit to feature, but Maximilian Beier will miss out after also sustaining an injury in the draw with Gladbach.
Gio Reyna has been back for just over two weeks, but is yet to receive a proper runout by manager Sahin, and he is unlikely to get that here either.
There are no new injury concerns for Barca, with defender Andreas Christensen still out, along with Marc Bernal and Ansu Fati further forward, but Ronald Araujo is believed to be in contention after five months out.
Ferran Torres recently returned from injury and has now scored in back-to-back games, but he is set to remain on the bench from the start here, with Raphinha and Lamine Yamal the preferred options either side of Robert Lewandowski, who reached 100 UCL goals after netting against Brest.
The season-ending injury to Marc-Andre ter Stegen means Inaki Pena continues to deputise in goal, being preferred to Wojciech Szczesny, who came out of retirement to join the club earlier in the season.
Borussia Dortmund possible starting lineup:
Kobel; Ryerson, Can, Schlotterbeck, Bensebaini; Sabitzer, Nmecha, Gross; Malen, Guirassy, Gittens
Barcelona possible starting lineup:
Inaki Pena; Kounde, Cubarsi, Inigo Martinez, Balde; Pedri, De Jong; Yamal, Dani Olmo, Raphinha; Lewandowski
SM words green background
We say: Borussia Dortmund 2-2 Barcelona
Flick won all five of his meetings with Dortmund as Bayern manager, but could find it a little tougher here, given BVB's supreme form at home, and the fragility that has crept into Barca's performances of late.
Dortmund may have crumbled away to Real Madrid on matchday three, but they have been excellent at the Westfalenstadion, and should be very competitive in what could be the game of the round.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
ID:560195:1false2false3false:QQ:: from db desktop :LenBod:collect15437:
Previews by email
Click here to get Sports Mole's daily email of previews and predictions for every major game!