UEFA Champions League: Tottenham vs Borussia Dortmund preview

Tottenham are looking to reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League for the first time since 2011, the first step would be to get a good result in the first leg of their tie against Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday at Wembley Stadium in London. These two teams have met at the same stage of the UEFA Europa League in 2016 and Borussia Dortmund prevailed quite easily with a 3-0 victory at home and a 2-1 success in London. A year later the two sides clashed in the group stage of the Champions League and Tottenham managed to win 3-1 at home and 2-1 away. Tottenham are on a three-game winning streak, but all those wins were in the Premier League after a disastrous few days in the domestic cups. At the end of January the Spurs got knocked out in the League Cup semi-finals by Chelsea and three days later they lost 2-0 at Crystal Palace in the FA Cup. However, they recovered from those disappointments with league wins over Watford, Newcastle and Leicester, all of them achieved without Harry Kane and Dele Alli. Both star players have returned to training but this match comes too soon for them. Ben Davies remains sidelined, while Danny Rose is an injury doubt. Borussia Dortmund have a realistic chance of winning the Bundesliga for the first time since 2012, but they would surely love to go far in the Champions League as well and maybe even go for a famous double. They had a pretty easy task in the group stage as Club Brugge and AS Monaco were unable to compete for qualification, but Borussia still did very well to beat Atletico Madrid to the top spot. Last week Dortmund suffered an unlikely setback in a home match, they drew 3-3 with Hoffenheim after having built a three-goal lead. They also conceded three goals in the German Cup match with Werder Bremen four days earlier and they eventually lost that match on penalties. Marco Reus is injured, along with Lukasz Piszczek, Julian Weigl and Paco Alcacer. Probable line-ups: Tottenham: Lloris - Trippier, Alderweireld, Sanchez, Vertonghen - Sissoko, Dier, Winks - Eriksen - Llorente, Son Dortmund: Burki - Hakimi, Diallo, Zagadou, Guerreiro - Delaney, Witsel - Sancho, Philipp, Larsen - Gotze My prediction: Tottenham to win 2-1, Borussia's defence seems quite fragile lately and the Spurs should be able to take advantage. Here are the odds for the match at Bet365: Tottenham win - 2.15 Draw - 3.60 Dortmund win - 3.50