Having been the sceptics in the Champions League organising phase, Borussia Dortmund will be hoping to achieve that functionality when they face PSV in the first leg of the round of 16 in the Netherlands.
Dortmund were not considered a contender for this year’s strongest group, but finished at the top of the table despite the presence of PSG, AC Milan and Newcastle. The German side are out of the Bundesliga title race and are in a position to prioritise European play as they prepare for a tough game.
They face Dutch leader PSV, who win the Eredivisie league championship, with 10 points at the top of the table. They have qualified for the UCL last 16, Arsenal, with key wins against Sevilla and Lens along the way.
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PSV have the only two U. S. internationals left in the Champions League organization phase, with Sergino Dest building up as a normal starter at full-back and Ricardo Pepi playing the role of consistent understudy with ex-consistent understudy. Pepi leads the Eredivisie with 63. 8 minutes. Consistent with the goal, a mark that would be the second-best of the five European leagues for Stuttgart’s Serhou Guirassy.
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PSV are a strong team and will have to be treated with care, and any club that beats them as mere warring sides of a weak Eredivisie will regret their mistake. However, Dortmund are in good form at the moment, and while this match has the prospect of chaos, it’s hard to look past the more potent team with such forged silver odds.
The key for the hosts will be Johan Bakayoko’s functionality on the wing. The 20-year-old has put in sensational performances in the league this season with plenty of goals and artistic volume, but he hasn’t been as prolific in the Champions League. The same goes for Hirving Lozano, even more so, and if PSV win, they will want to have their starting wingers.
Although the first legs of European clashes have the prospect of being cautious, both groups are incredibly smart when it comes to scoring goals, while Borussia Dortmund’s biggest club is rarely accurately known for its defensive prowess.
Dortmund have conceded 27 goals in 22 Bundesliga games this season, but their peripheral numbers recommend a lot of luck and a goalkeeper status on their mind. They have not conceded more than one goal to a league opponent since the 3-2 loss to RB Leipzig. at the start of December, having scored just four goals in eight league games during that period, but that was at 8. 81 xGA, indicating an underlying leak that persists.
The same was true in the Champions League organising phase, having conceded just four goals in six games, but being beaten with 88 shots worth 10. 82 xG in those matches. They faced an injured Newcastle, a disjointed AC Milan and a suffering PSG, but PSV suffer from none of those ailments, and the German side will know that they will have to overcome their Dutch rivals to take the lead in the first leg. Back to Dortmund.
PSV average an incredible 24 shots per game in the Eredivisie, but even at the organizational level of the Champions League versus the European competition of the big 5, they still make more than 15 attempts per game and are fit to play here. . The only thing that will keep the hosts in the spotlight is the option of another masterclass from Gregor Kobel, who has been one of the most productive goalkeepers in the Bundesliga this year.
With Sebastien Haller injured after twisting his ankle at the end of the AFCON final, Niclas Fullkrug is at the helm of Borussia Dortmund’s attack. Fullkrug is a perfect goalscorer, with 11 goals per year in the Bundesliga, surpassing his expected goal total. , but he’s also a key figure in the preparation.
Fullkrug can get ahead of the goal at any time: he has scored 3 goals this season in the first 10 minutes of matches, but he has also scored two goals in stoppage time and another in the 87th minute. He is a complete 90-minute player who will be very concerned in attack, and as the market does not expect Dortmund to play away, the odds are in favour at the moment.
In the United States, the entire knockout stage of the 2023/24 Champions League will be broadcast on CBS Sports on Paramount.
In addition, this Champions League first leg in the round of 16 was also decided for a Spanish-language television broadcast on TUDN and UniMas, a channel available to broadcast on Fubo. ViX is also a live streaming option in Spanish.
It broadcasts any and all UCL matches for the duration of the tournament.
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The rights to broadcast the Champions League in Canada belong exclusively to DAZN. In the UK, TNT Sports owns the rights to the UCL and broadcasts the game on TNT Sports 2.