Dortmund out to ruin Ronaldo milestone
BORUSSIA Dortmund will aim to maintain their unbeaten record at home to Real Madrid in the Champions League tonight and spoil Cristiano Ronaldo’s 150th European appearance.
Dortmund and title holders Real meet in the group stage for the second year running.
The teams drew both games 2-2 last season as the Germans topped the section before bowing out in the last eight, while Real went on to win a record 12th title.
Dortmund have won three and drawn three of their meetings at Signal Iduna Park, including their dazzling 4-1 first-leg win in the 2013 Champions League semifinal when Robert Lewandowski scored all four goals.
Defending champions Real opened their group campaign with a 3-0 win at home to APOEL, while Dortmund suffered a 3-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur a fortnight ago.
The Germans’ main task will be containing four-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo (pictured, AFP), who has scored 110 goals in European competition but failed to find the net in his last two outings.
The Portuguese superstar is among the final three nominees, with Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Paris Saint-Germain’s world’s most expensive player Neymar, for the Best FIFA Men’s Player 2017 award and t he winner wil l be announced on October 23.
Dortmund flexed their muscles ahead of the heavyweight showdown with a 6-1 home d r u b b i n g o f B o r u s s i a Monchengladbach in the German league on Saturday as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang netted a hat-trick.
The Gabon striker has now scored eight goals in six league games.
He has forged a partnership – dubbed “Philameyang” by the German media – with leftwinger Maximilian Philipp, who has scored four goals in his last three games.
‘Mistakes willl be punished’
“Things couldn’t ldn’t have gone b e t t e r , ” beamed Dor tmund’s W o r l d Cup winner M a r i o Gotze, who is back in form m after a metabolic olic disorder, following wing the Gladbach win.
“However, we know that it will be a mammothammoth task against Real onn Tuesday.”
While Dortmundmund shone in attack, they struggled at the back against Gladbach, who had half a dozen clear chances to score which went begging.
Zinedine Zidane’s Real are unlikely to be as forgiving.
“Against Real, mistakes like that will be punished totally differently,” warned Dortmund director Michael Zorc.
Dortmund’s big win came with forwards Marco Reus, Andre Schurrle and R a p h a e l Guerreiro injured, while new signing Andriy Yarmolenko, Nuri Sahin and Gonzalo Castro were not used.
Real traditionally have a terrible record in Germany, with 19 defeats, seven draws and only five wins.
However, four of t hose v ictories have come in t heir last seven v isits and t hey enjoyed a 2-1 winw at Bayern Munich in t he qua r ter f i na ls of last s season’s competition. But Los Blancos’ run o of scoring in 73 successiv sive matches in a ll compet petitions ended when they lost 1-01 at home to Real Betis on We Wednesday.
But theyt rebounded with a 2-1 win at Alaves on Saturday as Dan Dani Ceballos scored his first goalsg for Madrid on his firstf competitive start.