Borussia Dortmund gear up for an enticing challenge on midweek as they take on Portuguese Heavyweights Sporting CP at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.
The German champions are having a rough patch as they winless in their last three consecutive matches all competition. Thomas Tuchel’s side were held 1:1 thanks to some wonderful defensive work by Hertha BSC. Aubameyang’s penalty miss proved costly at the end as the Black and Yellows only manage a point at the Signal Iduna Park.
In matchday two in the Champions League, Dortmund faced off the challenge of mighty Real Madrid at home. Andre Schurrle’s terrific finish at the final stages gave the home side a crucial point and Die Schwarzgelben will eye for a win as they look to pip Real Madrid in order to win the group.
The Portuguese side experienced a painful loss against Real Madrid on the first matchday. After leading the game for almost the entirety of the game, Jorge Jesus’ side conceded two late goals right at the depth. However, the team took care of Legia Warszawa in the matchday two with a comfortable 2:0 victory.
Former Wolfsburg man Bas Dost has been a potent figure for Sporting since arriving at the club in the summer transfer window. A basic target man, Dost has scored four goals in four games for his new team in all competitions.
Borussia Dortmund will no doubt look to cease the defence of Sporting but with the lack of quality players in the squad, the team might struggle to break the lines of the compact Sporting defence, who have some great firepower on the attack as well.
Team News
Borussia Dortmund are going through an injury crisis right now. In fact, crisis would actually be an understatement. Center backs Neven Subotic, (Operation), Sokratis(Strain), Sven Bender (Marrow Bulge) will all miss out the match on Tuesday along with fullbacks Lukasz Piszczek (Knee Problem), Erik Durm (Knee OP) and the latest of them, Marcel Schmelzer, who is also out for two weeks due to pulled Hamstring adductor.
Not just the defense, pivotal playmakers such as Gonzalo Castro(Hamstring), Raphael Guerreiro (Muscle fibre) is also set to miss out along with attackers like Andre Schurrle(knee) and Adrian Ramos (adductor problem).
The return of Marco Reus will be a huge boost but he too is not fully expected to feature against Sporting.
Sporting on the other hand face no such injury problems apart from Lukas Spalvis (knee OP) and captain Andre Silva, who is also out due to a knee injury.
Predicted Lineups
Sporting CP: (4-2-3-1 formation) Rui Patricio; Joao Pereira, Sebastian Coates, Ruben Semedo, Jefferson; William Carvalho, Radosav Petrovic; Gelson Martins, Bryan Ruiz, Bruno Cesar; Bas Dost
Borussia Dortmund: (4-1-4-1 formation) Roman Weidenfeller; Matthias Ginter, Sebastian Rode, Marc Bartra, Felix Passlack; Julian Weigl; Ousmane Dembele, Mario Götze, Shinji Kagawa, Christian Pulisic; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Prediction: Sporting 1:2 Dortmund
