Dortmund vs Lille prediction: EUROPE: Champions League – Play Offs betting tips on match 2025-03-03 20:00.
[p]Borussia Dortmund and Lille will meet for the first time in 23 years with the winner of this two-legged UEFA Champions League (UCL) tie to progress to the quarter-finals. Dortmund failed to score in their knockout round play-off home leg against Sporting (0-0) but didn’t need to, keeping their three-goal lead safe following a successful trip to Portugal. The highest priority for new manager Niko Kovač was their defensive work and they’ve recently shown great improvement on that front. [/p]
[p]The Germans have already accumulated four clean sheets across all competitions during Kovač’s six-game reign, as many as they had managed in their previous 27 under Mike Tullberg and Nuri Şahin! That sets them up nicely to extend an almost unbeaten record from their last 15 UEFA home games (W9, D5, L1), which notably included clean sheet wins in both Round of 16 home legs within that run. [/p]
[p]Lille didn’t have to negotiate the play-off round to get this far, winning five of their eight league phase matches (D1, L2) to finish seventh. It’s a familiar feeling for head coach Bruno Génésio, who had previously steered Lyon, Rennes and even China’s Beijing Guoan into the knockout stages of a continental competition. If successful in this tie, he could oversee Lille’s UCL quarter-finals debut in April. [/p]
[p]They’ve stumbled since ending their league phase with a 6-1 home thrashing of Feyenoord, losing three of six competitive fixtures (W3), including being humbled by Dunkerque with a penalties defeat in the Coupe de France. The French side have also been struggling away from home, recording just one regulation time away win (D4, L3) against top-flight clubs since winning 2-1 in Bologna, and even then they only beat ten-man Rennes.[/p]
[p]Players to watch: Against Sporting, Dortmund star Serhou Guirassy registered his tenth goal of this UCL campaign to remain the competition’s top scorer of 2024/25. He’s been on the goal trail in the Bundesliga too, scoring five goals in his last two appearances. Lille’s Jonathan David also scored at the weekend and has seen four of his last five goals in this competition arrive after the hour mark.[/p]
[p]Hot stat: 14 of the last 17 goals in Dortmund’s UCL games came after half-time. [/p]
[p][i]Written by Aaron Murphy[/i][/p]