A few months ago, the knock on Borussia Dortmund was that they couldn’t compete in the Champions League. Sure, they were back-to-back Bundesliga champions, but they crashed out of the Champions League a year ago and would do the same this year, overwhelmed by continental competition.
Shakhtar Donetsk vs. Borussia Dortmund, 2013 UEFA Champions League: Lineups
A beat up Dortmund heads to Donetsk.
Not so much anymore.
They have gotten the Champions League monkey off their backs, advancing from a difficult group and playing in the knockout stages. Unfortunately for them, though, they are not doing so at full strength as they get ready to take on Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine.
Ilkay Gundogan will miss today’s match through injury, as will Nevin Subotic, who many thought would be fit enough to play. Surprisingly, Jurgen Klopp has not opted for Nuri Sahin in place of Gundogan and will instead pair Sven Bender and Sebastian Kehl in the double pivot.
Meanwhile, Shakhtar are as expected in their team. Tomas Hubschman is a little surprise, but nothing exceptionally different than usual. They are at home and are an agressive team to begin with so they have no reason to change what they do.
Shaktar Donetsk: Andriy Pyatov; Ravzan Rat, Yaroslav Rakitskiy, Dmytro Chygrynskiy, Darijo Srna; Tomas Hübschman, Fernandinho; Taison, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Alex Teixeira; Luiz Adriano
Borussia Dortmund: Roman Weidenfeller; Lukasz Piszczek, Felipe Santana, Mats Hummels, Marcel Schmelzer; Sven Bender, Sebastian Kehl; Jakub Blaszczykowsi, Mario Götze, Marco Reus; Robert Lewandowski
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