Two draws will not be something to brag of as the giants, Real Madrid, travel today to play Borussia Dortmund, a team that has been demolishing them at they compound.
Real Madrid will be hoping a change of competition will lead to a change of fortune as Zinedine Zidane’s stuttering side take on Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Madrid started the season in style, extending their winning run in La Liga from last term to a club-record 16 successive wins as well as lifting the UEFA Super Cup and beating Sporting Lisbon in their Champions League opener.
Although los Blancos usually lose at Signal Iduna park — two draws followed by three straight defeats, including a remarkable 4-1 thrashing in 2013 — this is a Dortmund side that, though dressed in yellow and black, has green tinges.
Los Merengues have dropped four points in their last two domestic matches since struggling to overcome Sporting Lisbon in their Group F opener.
Casemiro and Marcelo will miss out through injury, which means Fabio Coentrão could make his first start for Madrid for over a season.
A big task for Zinedine Zidane will be how to quell the danger from Dortmund’s counter attacks, especially as Casemiro will be out again.
Perhaps he will give Mateo Kovacic another chance to impress alongside Luka Modric, with Toni Kroos being the deeper lying of the midfield three that Zidane usually prefers to employ.
In the previous meeting between these two sides at Signal Idun Park in 2014, Dortmund won 2-0- thanks to a brace from Marco Reus in the quarter final first leg. Real reversed that deficit with a 3-0 victory at the Santiago Bernabeu to advance to the semi-final stage.
In the previous year’s semi-final stage, Dortmund dispatched Los Merengues 4-1, before grabbing a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture, before narrowly losing out to Bayern in the final.
Should history repeat itself, Real poor form should not be counted as contributor to the loss, but should be seen as the normal happenings at that field.