On Wednesday evening, the 2017-18 season group stage of the UEFA Champions League will come to an end. Today, the last eight matches of groups E-H will be played, and the battles of the Old Continent tournament will return only in the summer.
Today, the most attention should be focused on the match at the "Santiago Bernabeu" stadium, where Madrid's "Real" will host Dortmund's "Borussia". These matches do not have much significance anymore as both clubs have not been showing their best football, but their matches always are full of goals and great battles.
Sporting Form
Both Spanish and German teams have not shown their full potential this season - in the national championships, "Real" is in an unusual fourth position, while "Borussia" is just seventh.
In the last five matches, "Real" won only twice - against "Malaga" and Nikosia's APOEL. The remaining three matches ended in draws - against "Atletico", "Fuenlabrada", and Bilbao's "Athletic".
In the last matches, "Real" struggled against the Basque club and failed to break their defense.
"Borussia" is in even worse form this season - the Dortmund team has not achieved a victory in seven consecutive matches. The last time the "yellow-blacks" defeated their opponents was on October 24th.
Over the last five matches, "Borussia" suffered three defeats and played two draws. The last two matches ended in draws, following losses to Munich's "Bayern", "Stuttgart", and "Tottenham".
Both clubs gave way to "Tottenham" in their group, which was not considered a favorite to advance to the next stage at the beginning of the season. "Borussia" has not won a single match in this Champions League season and is tied in points with APOEL, so they have not guaranteed a place in the Europa League yet.
Real Madrid's path in the group stage against Tottenham included one draw and one loss. Their other matches ended in victories, securing them the second position in the standings.
Team News
Gareth Bale continues to be absent from Real Madrid's team, while Dani Carvajal is suspended. For Borussia, there are more injured players: Jeremy Toljan, Erik Durm, Mario Gotze, Lukasz Piszczek, Gonzalo Castro, Maximilian Philipp, Marco Reus, and Sebastian Rode.
Predicted Starting Lineups:
Real Madrid: Navas; Nacho, Varane, Ramos, Marcelo; Kovacic, Modric, Isco; Asensio, Benzema, Ronaldo.
Borussia: Burki; Papastathopoulos, Subotic, Schmelzer; Bartra, Weigl, Sahin, Guerreiro; Yarmolenko, Aubameyang, Pulisic.
Interesting Facts
For the first time since the 2011-12 season, Borussia failed to make it to the Champions League quarterfinals, excluding the season when BVB did not participate in the tournament at all.
Dortmund has not achieved a single victory in their last seven matches - three draws and four losses.
BVB has never won against "Real" at the "Santiago Bernabeu" fortress - two draws and four losses. Meanwhile, under Zinedine Zidane, Real Madrid has not tasted defeat during the Champions League tournament - nine victories and two draws.
The last time Real scored more than three goals at the "Santiago Bernabeu" stadium was in May when they defeated Sevilla 4-1.
In eight of the last ten matches against "Borussia", the Spanish capital's team scored at least three goals.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who has been quiet in Spain, shows excellent form in the Champions League - the Portuguese superstar has scored at least one goal in all five group stage matches and is the top scorer in the tournament with eight goals.
