After a somewhat disappointing 4-4 draw against Juventus two weeks ago, Niko Kovac and his team is now looking for redemption in the 2nd round of this year’s Champions League. This time, the Black and Yellows
will host Bilbao for the first home game in this year’s tournament. This is the first time ever that BVB will play the Basques in a competitive game, and I can absolutely assure you that their away fans will bring the fire to the Westfalenstadion. In their home league, Bilbao has been struggling quite a lot lately, having not won in their last four games. They have also scored just one goal in their last four outings, which have all been against teams below them in the table. On paper, this looks like an easy job for a BVB side in very strong form, but when the Champions League anthem plays, we know that everything can happen.
Player to Watch: Unai Simon
Note: If Nico Williams wasn’t out through injury, I 100 % would’ve picked him.
This is also one of those very few times where it really makes sense to highlight the opposition keeper. To be perfectly honest, Bilbao has some exciting profiles in their ranks, but if someone has to get them through the game tomorrow, it will absolutely be the Spanish national team goalkeeper, Unai Simon. The Basque-born goalkeeper has—among many other players in the team—played his entire career in Bilbao. Today, he ranks among some of the best goalkeepers in the world, and you can only admire his loyalty to his boyhood club.
Bilbao may have only scored seven goals in seven games this season, but they have also only conceded eight, and much of that comes down to their 28-year old world class goalkeeper. With him between the sticks, Dortmund will need to create big goal scoring opportunities in order to win. Not that I think the team is incapable, but the Champions League is honestly a different beast. I’m optimistic though, as the Black and Yellows are usually pretty good in international tournaments.
Predicted Starting XI:
I don’t predict many changes from the game on the weekend. Serhou Guirassy is supposedly back in the team, and although Julian Brandt did an amazing job against Mainz, I doubt that Guirassy will be shown the bench. Both Karim Adeyemi and Maximilian Beier have been in good form lately, so it is pretty difficult to see where Brandt could fit into a starting lineup. Other than that, I think Kovac seems pretty settled on large parts of this team, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
For the first time in a while, it feels like there are a lot of good options when it comes to fielding a starting eleven. While Sabitzer and Nmecha especially have been excellent, Pascal Groß and Jobe Bellingham are still high quality players. The same goes for Julian Brandt and Yan Couto. Niko Kovac finds himself in a favorable position, and if everything goes well, the squad might even be rotated a bit to make up for a season with a lot of games. I fully expect this to be the lineup for tomorrow, but as said, options are plenty at the moment.
Match Prediction
For once I’m feeling quite optimistic going into a match against a quality opponent. BVB have professionally dispatched some quite pesky sides in the Bundesliga lately, and they also managed a disciplined display in the Pokal. Kovac has so far made this team a well oiled machine that grinds out unspectacular, but good results. All attacking players seems to be in fine form at the moment as well. I won’t come up with an official score prediction, but I have a strong feeling that BVB will notch two or more goals tomorrow evening!
