Porto vs. Borussia Dortmund: Team News, Predicted Lineups, Live Stream, TV Info
FC Porto host Borussia Dortmund in the return leg of the 2015/16 UEFA Europa League round of 32 in the Estadio do Dragao on Thursday.
The Black and Yellows hold a comfortable 2-0 lead but will be wary of an opponent that'll look very different to the defensive-minded one they faced at home last week.
Dortmund dominated that game from start to finish and should probably have decided the tie after 90 minutes. Thursday's visitors showed why they're the bookmakers' favourites to win the competition, per Oddschecker.com, but they could find the two-goal lead less safe than one would perhaps think.
Porto will enter the game with a different mindset, knowing they have to chase a result. The return of a number of key players will be a huge boost to Jose Peseiro's side in that regard. Perhaps the Dragons will take an emotional lift from the weekend as well, where they came from behind to beat Moreirense FC 3-2 at home.
Many Dortmund fans will remember Porto's impressive 3-1 win at the Dragao over Bayern Munich in last year's Champions League quarter-finals, while their own club have an abysmal record in Portugal—albeit with a small sample size to judge upon—as BVB's official website noted earlier in February: "The Black and Yellows have lost on all three of their away trips to Portugal."
Dortmund, meanwhile, won at the weekend as well, beating Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 despite playing a motley crew of a team with a number of regulars being rested for Thursday's match against Porto.
Thanks to their two-goal advantage and the fact that they kept a clean sheet at home, scoring one away goal would in all likelihood decide the tie in Dortmund's favour.
Fans can therefore expect a pretty open match: The hosts have to be aggressive to equalise Dortmund's lead from the first 90 minutes, while the visitors are unlikely to sit back and leave the ball to Porto.
Date: Thursday, February 25
Time: 8:05 p.m. GMT/3:05 p.m. ET/8:.05 p.m. local time
Venue: Estadio do Dragao, Porto
TV Info: BT Sport Extra 2 (UK only)/ESPN Deportes (U.S. only)
Live Stream: BT Sport live streaming (UK only)/Fox Soccer 2Go, Watch ESPN (U.S. only)
Form Guide
| Porto | Dortmund |
| Gil Vicente: Win (3-0) | Hertha: Draw (0-0) |
| Arouca: Loss (2-1) | Stuttgart: Win (3-1) |
| Benfica: Win (2-1) | Hannover: Win (1-0) |
| Dortmund: Loss (2-0) | Porto: Win (2-0) |
| Moreirense: Win (3-2) | Leverkusen: Win (1-0) |
Predicted Lineups
Porto
Maxi and Danilo Pereira were suspended in the first leg and will start on Thursday. The latter could play at his usual spot in midfield, but is more likely to play at centre-back with Bruno Martins Indi out injured, per Portuguese paper O Jogo (h/t FCPortoGlobal on Twitter).
Ivan Marcano returned to the lineup after a muscle injury at the weekend, which allowed Miguel Layun to move to his regular spot at left-back after filling in for the Spaniard at centre-back against Dortmund.
Seeing as they need to score (at least) two goals, Peseiro will likely field his usual attack, meaning both No. 10 Andre Andre and right-winger Jesus Corona should start after surprisingly sitting on the bench at Signal Iduna Park last week.
Striker Vincent Aboubakar, whom Dortmund's defenders utterly dominated in the first meeting, didn't play against Moreirense, while his replacement, Suk Hyun-Jun was on target at the weekend. It still would be a surprise to see him start over Aboubakar on Thursday.
Predicted Starting XI: Casillas; Maxi Pereira, Marcano, Danilo Pereira, Layun; Herrera, Ruben Neves; Corona, Andre, Brahimi; Aboubakar.
Dortmund
Head coach Thomas Tuchel took advantage of his team's comfortable position in the Bundesliga and rested a number of key players at the weekend.
Apart from Sokratis Papastathopoulos, who'll miss three weeks with a torn muscle fibre, according to the club's official website, everyone is available.
Europa League goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller isn't fit to start, however, as Tuchel told the media in Wednesday's press conference. The 2014 FIFA World Cup winner missed the first meeting with a nasty cold but had returned to his spot on the bench for the Leverkusen game.
Neven Subotic would seem like the first option to replace Sokratis in central defence after coming on for the Greece international during the Leverkusen game, but it wouldn't be a surprise to see Sven Bender start there, either.
The German, who signed a new contract until 2021 on Tuesday, had clearly overtaken Subotic in the pecking order at centre-back before the winter break.
Elsewhere, Dortmund's midfield formation will be interesting. Ilkay Gundogan returned to team training on Monday after missing both the Porto and Leverkusen matches with an illness.
Tuchel could opt for maximum ball security against aggressive pressing and field a trio of Gundogan, Julian Weigl and Nuri Sahin, but it seems more likely that only two of those three will play.
Predicted Starting XI: Burki; Piszczek, Subotic, Hummels, Schmelzer; Gundogan, Weigl, Kagawa; Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang, Reus.
Players to Watch
Algerian winger Yacine Brahimi is a bit of an enigma. He was borderline invisible at Dortmund, looking cut off from his team's attacking play and seemingly losing interest as the game went along.
Still, there's no denying the 26-year-old's raw talent: He's very creative, has a good drive on the ball and, as the stat tweeted by stat provider Opta on Tuesday shows, is an outstanding dribbler:
With his side needing to score goals, the left-winger has to up his game.
As for the visitors, a natural focus will be on Sokratis' replacement. The Greek defender played in all but one of Dortmund's seven games of 2016—Subotic replaced him in the win over Hannover 96 and did very well—and was a big part of the impressive five clean sheets they've kept since the turn of the year.
Whether it's Subotic or Bender, Porto will likely test his replacement. The good thing for Dortmund supporters is that Mats Hummels' strong form could rub off on his partner in central defence.
The team captain has hardly put a foot wrong in recent weeks and was easily the best player on the pitch in the first meeting.
Key Battle
Full-Backs vs. Full-Backs
As stated above, Porto will play with a new set of full-backs in the return leg. Silvestre Varela was clearly outmatched playing at right-back at Dortmund, always struggling with the charging runs of Marcel Schmelzer and almost getting sent off for a brutal foul on Marco Reus in the second half.
Uruguay international Maxi Pereira is an entirely different animal and will probably keep Schmelzer busy in deeper zones of the pitch.
The same will go for Layun on the left. As Portuguese football expert Jan Hagen tweeted after Porto's win over Moreirense, "the left-back now has 15 assists & 3 goals in 20 Liga games."
The Mexican played fairly well deputising for Marcano in central defence at Dortmund, but he will add an attacking threat on Thursday that his side lacked in Germany.
Schmelzer and his counterpart on the right side, Lukasz Piszczek, had a pretty easy game last week, the same doesn't look to be on the cards at the Dragao.
Please also note that we highlighted the midfield battle as the key to the game in this earlier piece.
Odds (via Oddschecker)
Porto: 27-11
Draw: 34-14
Dortmund: 16-13
Lineup predictions were amended after Wednesday's press conferences.
Lars Pollmann is a featured columnist writing on Borussia Dortmund. He also writes for YellowWallPod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
