This would be the first meeting between the two second placed sides in their respective leagues in a European competition. Tottenham travel to Dortmund in one of the most coveted ties in Europa League history.
Both teams have been flying high in the league and come off draws against their biggest rivals in the league. Tottenham though would be looking to keep a clean sheet while Dortmund have been incredible in recent weeks with their goal scoring and defending.
The tie would still have one more leg to come in a few weeks and the team coming out on top in this tie could well be the one moving into the next round.
Team news:
There are no real concerns for Borussia Dortmund in this game against Tottenham. The German side only has the long term injury of Sokratis Papastathopoulos.
Tottenham do have a couple of major injury concerns as Jan Vertonghen is still out and Dele Alli does miss out on the game due to a suspension. Tottenham would be ringing in a few changes to ensure that they do not lose in the first game of the knockout round and hopefully progress into the next stage of the competition.
Probable starting line-ups:
Borussia Dortmund starting XI: Roman Burki, Mats Hummels, Sven Bender, Erik Durm, Marcel Schmelzer, Lukasz Piszczek, Julian Weigl, Ilkay Gundagon, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Marco Reus
Tottenham starting XI: Hugo Lloris, Kieran Trippier, Toby Alderweireld, Kevin Wimmer, Danny Rose, Eric Dier, Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen, Moussa Dembele, Nacer Chadli, Harry Kane
Stats:
- Tottenham have only lost one game in European competition this season
- Dortmund have only conceded two goals in their last 10 games in all competitions
- Erik Lamela is the second highest scorer in the competition with six goals
- Son has scored five times in his last five games against Dortmund
Form guide: Last five games in all competitions (Right most game being the last one played)
Borussia Dortmund: WWWWD
Tottenham: WWWLD
Prediction:
This will be yet another tough game to call simply because both teams have been doing extremely well this season in their respective leagues. Dortmund though seem to be the team who are clicking with the right momentum and also have a lot of players on form, Tottenham might be doing well but they don’t have enough fit players and with the Premier League up for grabs, they could let slip this game.
Dortmund will be the team looking to do most of the attacking and should win their game 2-1 in the first leg.
