Champions League Semi Final: PSG – Dortmund

Die Gelbe Wand played a massive role in Dortmund´s victory last week over Luis Enrique´s PSG side. The atmosphere was electric, giving a massive lift to the home team. This time it will be different though as the French fans will be ready to shout their team to the 2nd final in 5 years. PSG will be gutted that they did not convert any of the several chances they created last week which would have made their task today a lot easier. However, their most recent clash with Dortmund in Paris will give them hope as they managed to beat their opponent 2-0 last time. Much will depend tonight on the form of Mbappe, can the French superstar fire his team to a 2nd Champions League final in the club´s history?

PSG Team News

Compared to last week, where PSG were missing long term injured Kurzawa, Kimpembe and Sergio Rico the Parisians have one new injury to deal with. Lucas Hernandez injured his ACL trying to prevent Fullkrug from scoring but unfortunately for him not only could not prevent the German striker blasting the 1-0 past Donnaruma but also saw his season end and his hopes of participating in this year´s European Championship disappear. We will have to see who Enrique will choose as replacement for the Frenchman in tonight’s clash. 

Dortmund Team News

Dortmund will be very happy with the medical news ahead of the deciding semi final clash. Last week several players were not fit, with Haller and Malen unable to start the match and contribute. However, this week, only 2 players are injured on the German side, and both players would not have featured in the starting 11 anyway. Terzic will be delighted to have all his attacking options available to him should his team come in a position to overturn a deficit within the game. And especially Donyell Malen´s threat on the counter attack could provide instrumental in Dortmund´s game plan as they look to defend their 1-0 lead from the first leg and strike on the counter attack. 

PSG Form

PSG´s defeat at Dortmund was the first defeat since the defeat against Barcelona in the final. PSG at home this season in the Champions League have picked up 10 out of the possible 15 points with only Barcelona emerging victorious from Parc des Princes. In the French League Enrique´s side already are certain to win the league title yet again as Monaco has fallen too far behind in the title race. The last defeat domestically came at the hands of nice all the way back in September right at the beginning of the season. 

Dortmund Form

For months Dortmund has seen big fluctuations in form domestically. Some excellent results against the likes of Bayern and Stuttgart were followed up by unexplainable defeats in other matches. In the away tie in the Quarter Finals Dortmund were blown away by Atletico in a stunning first half. Dortmund dropped down to a 2-goal deficit. However, a late Haller goal gave them hope and the rest is history for example. Dortmund will hope they can deliver a similar performance like the away fixture against Bayern of last month as they were perfect at the back to shut out Bayern´s strong attack and were deadly in the counter attack to seal an impressive 2-0 victory in the Allianz Arena. 

What do the stats say?

• Dortmund are yet to win at PSG , failing to win in their first 3 fixtures in Paris. 
• 6 out of the 7 head 2 head matches between these 2 teams saw 2 goals or fewer. 
• This fixture in this year´s group stage ended in a 2-0 victory for PSG. 

Our verdict

Closely contested Semi Finals are always difficult to predict, and we would not be able to say for sure who will go through tonight. Both teams are still with all chance to go through to the final after last week’s result. PSG looked very dangerous at times in the game in Dortmund and managed to convincingly beat Dortmund at home in the group stage this year already. Enrique´s men could very well repeat that feature but will know that Dortmund are incredibly tough to beat this season in the Champions League. We expect a cagey contest tonight with not too many goals and both teams probably still in it right until the end.