The Champions League is back after more than two months as the first leg of the round 16 matches start later today with Borussia Dortmund set to take on Benfica at Estádio da Luz in Portugal.
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Benfica will be looking for a jumpstart in the first leg at their home ground and might as well prove a difficult team to beat despite Borussia Dortmund's star-laden lineup.
Benfica coach Rui Vitória don't have the luxury of choosing from a complete squad with forward Andrija Živković suspended for the match and defender Lisandro Lopez nursing an injury. Benfica will also miss their top striker Jonas due to injury and Kostas Mitroglou will be under a lot of pressure to score, if he gets a start.
Meanwhile, Benfica's Brazilian defender Luisao is in line to make his 500th appearance for the club and after celebrating his 36th birthday yesterday he will be hoping to put in a strong performance against Borussia Dortmund. Benfica coach Rui Vitória is hoping that the defender can celebrate the day with a win and a goal.
"Hardly any player will play 500 games for Benfica again. There will not be someone who does it this way. If they are very good, someone can easily come with a bag of money and take them.
"Luisao has performed fantastically over these 14 years, he is a source of pride and I am glad every time he makes a quality play. It would be great to win the match, and for him to score.
"We will face a strong team, whose main characteristic is a fantastic attacking power. Alongside this, they change their system frequently and very easily. This creates a lot of unpredictability for other teams but we have to try to control their dynamics, but never forgetting our ambitious and clinical way," Rui Vitória said.
Borussia Dortmund, on the other hand, are going through a bad spell in the domestic circuit and after their most recent loss against Darmstadt, they are at the 4th spot in the Bundesliga table, 8 points behind 2nd place Leipzig and 15 points behind Bayern Munich. Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel will be hoping to make up for the poor run in the Champions League.
However, Dortmund did really well in the group stages of the Champions League and topped Group F ahead of Real Madrid.
The German side has a few injury concerns prior to this match as Mario Götze and Sven Bender will miss the match. While Nuri Şahin and Sebastian Rode face a late fitness test, Marcel Schmelzer and Lukasz Piszczek will be available for selection.
The Dortmund boss admitted that his side underperformed against Darmstadt.
"We were simply a long way below our limit and we have to admit Darmstadt deserved to win. In all honesty, we come into our own when it's a 50-50 game. In our two matches against Leipzig (league) and Hertha Berlin (German Cup) we played two matches where we were in the spotlight."
"That's when we seem to be focused best and sharp and that's when we reach our maximum. Against Darmstadt 98 there was nothing to win. The game was under the radar and everyone expected us to do so. It seems we have trouble being really sharp at games without the big stage."
Where to watch
The Champions League round of 16 match between Benfica and Borussia Dortmund is set to start at 8.45pm CET (7.45pm GMT, 2.45pm ET, 1.15am IST).
TV and Live streaming information
India: TV: Ten 1. Live streaming: Ten Sports live.
UK: TV: No coverage. Radio: BBC Radio 5
USA: TV: Fox Sports 2. Live Streaming: Foxsoccer2go.
Portugal: TV: Sport TV1, RTP 1
Germany: TV: Sky Sports 3/HD
Middle East: TV: Bein Sports. Live streaming: Bein Sports Connect.
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