Dortmund – Villarreal

The hosts will start the Champions League with a win.

Borussia Dortmund has reached the Champions League finals twice in the last fifteen years. The German club hasn't always been as successful in the Bundesliga as it has been in Europe's top competition. Year after year the Wasps reach the knockout rounds, often making deep runs. Last season, Atalanta knocked Dortmund out, having overturned an away defeat of 0-2 in Bergamo. In the new Champions League edition, the Wasps entered as the runners-up of Germany. In last season's Bundesliga, the team trailed the champions Bayern by a large margin, but comfortably outdistanced third-placed Leipzig. In the run-up to the new season, Dortmund lost Julian Brandt and Karim Adeyemi. The loss of the latter could seriously affect the Wasps' attacking capabilities, who are accustomed to losing their key players every year. To compensate for the losses Dortmund invested in four players for a total of over 100 million euros: Joey Veerman from PSV, Konstantinos Karatzas from Genk, Yiannis Konstantelias from PAOK, and Joao Gadu from Leipzig. So far, Nico Kovac is doing a good job organizing his team's play. Dortmund started the season with a respectable defeat to Bayern in the German Super Cup, but subsequently won three in a row, scoring ten goals in total against their opponents. Interestingly, after an hour into the away game against Hoffenheim, Dortmund were 0-2 down, but shifted into top gear and clinched a dramatic 3-2 victory. Villarreal will play in the Champions League group stage for the second year in a row. In the previous edition, the Yellow Submarine finished last, together with Kairat Almaty. Then the Spaniards lost seven of eight matches in the tournament. It's hard to say what conclusions the players of the third-placed team in La Liga drew, but there's no doubt they have problems. Villarreal has already played four matches this season, none of which they won. Two of them were against newcomers to the Spanish division: Deportivo and Racing. Overall there's nothing for the guests to boast about ahead of the upcoming match. Villarreal's trip to Dortmund after two league defeats will surely turn into a full-blown run of losses.