5 reasons Borussia Dortmund will beat Manchester City in the UEFA Champions League
Borussia Dortmund have reason to be confident when they come up against some familiar faces in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday. Their former striker Erling Haaland and a Manchester City side led by ex-Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola stand in the way of them booking a place in the round of 16.
bundesliga.com gives five reasons why Dortmund can get the better of the English Premier League champions…
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1) Barnstorming Bellingham
City know more than most about how good England international Jude Bellingham is. A regular with his country, the midfielder faced Guardiola’s team for the first time in the Champions League quarter-finals in April 2021.
Bellingham has now struck in each of his last two matches against them, having first become the youngest Englishman to score in the competition - at 17 years and 289 days - in the second leg of the last-eight tie. He also put Dortmund ahead in the first meeting of the sides in the group stage this season, with late goals from John Stones and Haaland seeing City win 2-1.
Watch: Bellingham scored twice against Stuttgart
The former Birmingham City youngster was named as third in line to captain Dortmund this season, and he has been inspirational on the pitch ever since. The teenager was named Man of the Matchday after scoring twice in Dortmund’s 5-0 thrashing of VfB Stuttgart on Saturday, after which Edin Terzic was asked to sum up another sensational performance.
“Jude is extraordinary in that he’s so consistent and he’s still just 19,” Terzic marvelled.
Bellingham now has eight goals in all competitions this season - more than any other Dortmund player. Four of them have come in the Champions League, with his strike against City added to in the 3-0 win over Copenhagen, a 4-1 victory away to Sevilla and a 1-1 draw at home to the Spaniards.
No wonder Guardiola was excited after his first encounter with Bellingham in the Champions League. "I can’t believe it, maybe he’s a liar!” the former Barcelona head coach exclaimed when asked about Bellingham’s performances over the two legs.
Watch: The best of Bellingham
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“He’s so good for 17 years old, he’s a fantastic player. There was one moment when he didn’t get the ball from central defenders, how he shouts and demands that ball to him at 17 means a lot. I spoke with his manager, Edin [Terzic], and he told me what you see in these two games is like every training session.”
2) Better the devil you know
Haaland has not only hit the ground running since his move to Manchester, he's positively torn it up as a City player. The 22-year-old has 17 goals from his first 11 league matches in England as well as five in three Champions League games.
It’s a similar start to that which he enjoyed in Dortmund, where the Norwegian goal-machine hit a hat-trick on his debut - from the bench! - and struck a total of nine times in his first six Bundesliga appearances. But while Haaland is undeniably a goalscoring freight train, Dortmund's defence should feel capable of putting on the brakes.
Watch: All 62 of Haaland's goals in the Bundesliga
After all, the likes of Mats Hummels, Gregor Kobel and the rest of Haaland's former Dortmund teammates went up against him in training day-in, day-out for two-and-a-half-years together. Then there are Nico Schlotterbeck and Niklas Süle who are new to the club but regularly pitted their wits against Haaland previously for both Freiburg and Bayern Munich. Haaland sure is hard to stop - as Dortmund were reminded of when he got that Matchday 2 winner - but the home defenders should be better prepared than any other team.
3) It’s different at home
Dortmund’s supporters and the famous Yellow Wall have driven the team on to plenty of wins that didn’t seem possible. BVB have had one blip at home this season - a remarkable 3-2 defeat against Werder Bremen - but apart from that they have won all of their matches at Signal-Iduna Park apart from draws with Bayern Munich and Sevilla. In both of the latter games they came from behind, with teenager Youssoufa Moukoko and substitute Anthony Modeste salvaging an unlikely point in a spectacular Matchday 9 Klassiker. Bellingham, meanwhile, got the equaliser against Sevilla on Matchday 4 in Europe.
In the Champions League Dortmund rarely slip up at home and often win against the odds, most famously in incredible victories - for different reasons - over Malaga and Real Madrid when they last got to the final in the 2012/13 season. BVB usually always score at home on big Champions League nights, with more recent dramatic triumphs over Inter Milan and Paris Saint-Germain still fresh in the memory bank.
On Matchday 5 there’s also Manchester City’s away record to consider. As impressive as they have been at home - scoring 34 goals in eight victories across all competitions - their away record should give Dortmund hope. City have already drawn at Newcastle and Aston Villa in the Premier League this season, and they have failed to win either of their last two matches on the road. After a 0-0 draw at Copenhagen on Matchday 4 of the Champions League, they were then beaten 1-0 at Liverpool.
4) Pep’s Bestia Negra
City manager Guardiola is not familiar with losing games. His record at Barcelona, Bayern and City speaks for itself. Of 775 games on the bench, he has won 574 and lost just 96. That equates to a win ratio of almost 75 per cent, or three wins in every four games.
The story is different against Dortmund, though. In 14 previous meetings with Die Schwarzgelben, he has won nine and lost four, drawing the other. His win ratio therefore drops to 64 per cent against BVB, with fewer sides in world football causing him more trouble.
Indeed, he has lost more times only against Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham and Real Madrid - all clubs he has faced more frequently too. You can be sure that Guardiola will not be relishing facing a Bestia Negra - a side who have almost always caused his teams trouble down the years.
5) Flying in Europe under Terzic
Terzic was the man who last delivered silverware to Dortmund, in the shape of a 2021 DFB Cup win spearheaded by Haaland. That might not have been enough to keep him in a job, but BVB soon saw the error of their ways and recalled him to the club in the summer.
Dortmund have had their setbacks in the league under the boyhood Dortmund fan, but they are still only four points behind league leaders Union Berlin after 11 games. They have also coasted through two rounds of the DFB Cup, and in the new year they will face Bochum away in the last 16.
It’s in Europe, though, where Terzic has really left his mark. The former West Ham assistant coach watched his team open with a dominant win over Danish side Copenhagen, before seeing his charges rattle City away from home. The three-goal win away to Sevilla on Matchday 3 was a real highlight, while a point from the return match ensures Dortmund are on the verge of reaching the knockout stage for the fourth time in the last five seasons.
Seven points from four group matches, nine goals scored and five different goalscorers makes for good reading for Terzic. Now the 39-year-old needs to mastermind one more big performance to get his side into the round of 16.
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