By Ian King
Event kind
Neither of those two groups have awoken barely from a slumber that appeared to seep into their opening matches, by which Actual Madrid didn’t beat Al-Hilal whereas Borussia Dortmund have been held to a goalless draw by Fluminense. Each have since finished ‘sufficient’ to get this far with out trying very similar to champions of the world, with Actual Madrid beating Juventus and Dortmund beating Monterrey within the final spherical to arrange this assembly.
Historical past repeats itself
If you’d like historical past, these two golf equipment have gotten historical past, although the omens don’t look significantly nice for Borussia Dortmund. They’ve met 16 instances within the Champions League, however Dortmund have solely gained three of them, and Actual have gained the final 4 in a row, one in every of which simply occurred to be the 2024 last, whereas in addition they beat Dortmund 5-2 within the 2024-25 megagroup stage. Dortmund’s final win got here within the first leg of the 2013-14 quarter-finals, when the thrill of a 2-0 win within the first leg was somewhat undone by shedding the return match 3-0 and getting eradicated from the competitors.
Key Gamers
For all of the speak of the amount of cash that they throw round, it was a graduate of the Actual Madrid academy, Goncalo García, who scored the one aim of their win in opposition to Juventus within the final spherical. Having additionally scored their equaliser of their opening match and their third aim of their final group match in opposition to RB Salzburg, he’s turning into their breakout star of the match.
For Dortmund, Serhou Guirassy scored each of their targets in opposition to Monterrey. He’s now scored 37 targets in 49 appearances for them in all competitions this season; not a foul first season, following his switch from Stuttgart.
Crew Information
Enjoyers of narrative shall be dissatisfied to listen to that there shall be no Bellingham Derby this time round, after Jobe picked up a second yellow card in opposition to Monterrey and picked up a one match suspension. O brother, the place artwork thou?
Actual are lacking Eduardo Camavinga, David Alaba, Endrick and Ferland Mendy with accidents, whereas Emre Can, Salih Özcan and Nico Schlotterbeck will all be absent for Dortmund.
Kylian Mbappé returned for Actual in opposition to Juve, solely to search out himself overshadowed by understudy Goncalo García.
Prediction
Because the interminable 2024-25 season drags into its eleventh month, it’s troublesome to keep away from the temptation of questioning in regards to the extent to which fatigue goes to affect this match. That is Actual Madrid’s 67th recreation of the season in all competitions, whereas it’s Borussia Dortmund’s fifty fifth.
However whereas there could also be (justified) scoffing about this match, Actual Madrid are taking it severely. They have been the primary winners of the European Cup in 1956 and the primary winners of the Intercontinental Cup in 1960. Being the first winners issues to them, in order that they have the motivation.
They’ve a younger participant who’s been scoring targets, and Dortmund are lacking their newly-purchased teenage sensation, whereas Actual have gained every of their final 4 conferences within the Champions League, so it’s troublesome to see previous a Actual win. Let’s go for 2-1 Madrid win, and Borussia Dortmund to get in some much-needed relaxation forward of the brand new season.
(Cowl picture from IMAGO)
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