Dortmund poised to stun stuttering Madrid – and hinder Tottenham
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The best game of tonight’s Champions League action is arguably Borussia Dortmund’s home tie with Real Madrid.
There’s a British interest too, as the result will impact Tottenham Hotspur’s chances of progression from a fiendishly difficult Group H.
Dortmund are out to make up for defeat to Spurs at Wembley. And there’s a real chance they can do just that – throwing the group wide open in the process.
A good scenario for Spurs tonight would be beating APOEL Nicosia, while Real win at Dortmund.
That would leave the pair on six points, with Dortmund and APOEL stuck on zero.
But given Dortmund’s form, that looks unlikely – if anything a home win beckons. And that would mean both Real and the German side remain firmly in the frame to oust Tottenham for those top two spots.
The sides are familiar with each other, having met at this stage of the competition 12 months ago and they played out a pair of thrilling 2-2 draws.
Our traders make BvB 13/8 for victory, while a draw is 14/5 and a Real win 11/8.
Despite landing a La Liga and Champions League double last season, Zinedine Zidane’s men have yet to get going this term.
Los Blancos are already seven points behind Barcelona in the title race, while they lost 1-0 at home to Real Betis last week.
And though they bounced back to beat Alaves at the weekend, a 2-1 win away at the league’s bottom side was far from impressive.
Cristiano Ronaldo and co must now go and face a rejuvenated Dortmund, thriving under new coach Peter Bosz.
The former Ajax boss succeeded Thomas Tuchel in the summer, and the German outfit have flown out of the blocks.
Winning five and drawing one of their opening six league games, Dortmund are two points clear at the top – and three ahead of Bayern Munich.
They’ve already netted a whopping 19 goals, while their defence has been beaten just once in the Bundesliga.
Indeed that’s what made their 3-1 loss to Tottenham at Wembley a fortnight ago all the more surprising.
Bosz ensured Dortmund quickly bounced back though, winning three from three since that defeat, scoring 14 times in the process.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is certainly reaping the rewards of staying put at the Signal Iduna Park.
The Ghana striker looked set to leave the club in the summer, but has now hit 12 goals in just nine games this season. He netted in both games against Real last season and and is 7/2 to score first tonight.
For all the talk of Real’s classy midfield talents of Luka Modric, Isco and Marco Asensio, Dortmund can all but match them.
Mario Gotze, American star Christian Pulisic, Shinji Kagawi and Nuri Sahin and Mahmoud Dahoud have all been excellent this season.
And it’s worth noting that all their success so far has been without Marco Reus and Andre Schurrle, both of whom are yet to return from injury.
So don’t be surprised if BvB do the business tonight. And should they do so, their 33/1 price to win this year’s Champions League will quickly disappear.
Click here for all our Champions League odds.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
