Borussia Dortmund vs Athletic Club

Borussia Dortmund have lost just one of their last 19 UEFA Champions League games on home soil, winning 12 and drawing six.

Athletic Club boss Ernesto Valverde has lost consecutive games in the UEFA Champions League for the first time since November 2014, when he lost three in a row in a previous spell with the club.

Jobe Bellingham made his first UEFA Champions League start for Dortmund, the fifth Englishman to do so (also Jadon Sancho, Jude Bellingham, Jamie Gittens and Carney Chukwuemeka), with only Real Madrid having more, excluding British teams (6 - McManaman, Owen, Beckham, Woodgate, Jude Bellingham, Trent Alexander-Arnold).

Borussia Dortmund and Athletic Club will face each other for the first time in European competition, while this will be Athletic’s first game against a German side in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League.

Borussia Dortmund have only lost three of their 16 home games against Spanish teams in the UEFA Champions League (W7 D6), while only Real Madrid have managed to beat them by more than a single goal – doing so in the 2017-18 edition which they went on to win overall (3-1 at Signal Iduna Park).

Athletic Club are unbeaten in their last six games against German sides in major European competition (W4 D2), although the most recent of those matches was in the 2017-18 UEFA Europa League group stage (3-2 v Hertha BSC in November 2017).

Athletic Club haven’t lost on any of their last three European away trips to face German sides (W2 D1), winning at Augsburg (3-2 in 2015) and FC Schalke 04 (4-2 in 2012). The latter victory came in the season they last reached a major European final, finishing as 2011-12 UEFA Europa League runners-up under Marcelo Bielsa.

Borussia Dortmund boss Niko Kovac has never lost a UEFA Champions League game in the group/league phase (10 games – W7 D3), while those 10 matches have seen an average of 4.5 goals scored per outing (32 goals for, 13 conceded).