Dotmund quartet miss out, Man City sweating on two stars – originally posted on Sportslens.com
Borussia Dortmund play host to Manchester City in the return leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie at the Signal Iduna Park on Wednesday.
Dortmund almost got away with a draw in the first leg only to succumb to a 2-1 defeat in the dying moments of the encounter.
After Phil Foden’s 90th-minute winner at the Etihad Stadium, City will be out to finish the job in Germany, where they have won each of their last three European fixtures.
Borussia Dortmund Preview
A first-leg loss has made it six consecutive defeats for Dortmund versus Premier League rivals, albeit Marco Reus’ late strike gives them hope of overturning this tie.
Since defeating Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in the 2015/16 Europa League last-16 second leg, they have failed to beat a Premier League opponent in seven consecutive European meetings (D1, L6).
Despite losing their last two European home fixtures against English visitors, the Bundesliga giants still boast a positive overall home record against such opposition (W6, D4, L3).
It will take something special from Die Borussen to turn the tables on City, considering they have lost 53.85% of their last 13 knock-out games across major European competitions (W3, D3, L7).
Encouragingly, though, Dortmund have ended up on the winning side in 47.06% of the UEFA competition ties in which they lost the first leg away from home (8/17).
Manchester City Preview
A 2-1 first-leg triumph means the Cityzens have now won seven European matches on the trot against Bundesliga sides, last failing to prevail in such contest in a 1-1 away draw at Borussia Monchengladbach in the 2016/17 Champions League group stage.
Additionally, the runaway Premier League leaders have picked up three consecutive UEFA victories on German soil and are unbeaten in their last five visits to the country (W4, D1).
Overall, Pep Guardiola’s men have secured 12 wins in their previous 13 European encounters with Bundesliga clubs (D1), last losing such engagement to Bayern Munich in September 2014.
City have successfully negotiated five of the seven UEFA two-legged ties after winning the first leg at home.
However, their last such attempt resulted in the away-goal defeat to Monaco back in the 2016/17 UEFA Champions League round of 16.
Notably, the visitors have lost just two of their last 15 European games away from the Etihad (W10, D2), but none of those reverses came on foreign soil.
Team News
Borussia Dortmund
Out: Jadon Sancho, Axel Witsel, Dan-Axel Zagadou, Youssoufa Moukoko.
Doubts: N/A
Manchester City
Out: N/A
Doubts: Aymeric Laporte, Sergio Aguero.
Predicted Line-ups
Borussia Dortmund (4-3-3): Marwin Hitz; Raphael Guerreiro, Mats Hummels, Manuel Akanji, Mateu Morey; Thomas Delaney, Mahmoud Dahoud, Jude Bellingham; Ansgar Knauff, Giovanni Reyna, Erling Braut Haaland.
Manchester City (4-3-3): Ederson; Joao Cancelo, John Stones, Ruben Dias, Kyle Walker; Rodri, Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin De Bruyne; Phil Foden, Riyadh Mahrez, Gabriel Jesus.