Borussia Dortmund vs Paris Saint-Germain Preview

Borussia Dortmund will look to extend their fairytale run in the UEFA Champions League this season when they welcome Paris Saint-Germain to Signal Iduna Park for the first leg of their semi-final tie on Wednesday.

The hosts are potentially 180 minutes away from reaching their first UEFA Champions League (UCL) final berth since 2012/13. They will be keen to claim an advantage ahead of their return to Paris next week. However, just six wins from their last 12 home UCL knockout matches (D1, L5) suggest that may be a tall order.

Moreso, their preparations for this match have been far from ideal, going down 4-1 away to RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga on Saturday. This result now means they’re unlikely to return to this competition next season unless they win the tournament.

Getting past PSG will be no easy task as that’s something Dortmund twice failed to do when the pair shared a group earlier this season (D1, L1). But the Germans are yet to lose at home to the French giants in European competition (W1, D2). They beat Atletico Madrid 4-2 in their last UCL home game to book their place in this round.

Meanwhile, Paris Saint-Germain booked their place in this round by defeating Barcelona 6-4 on aggregate despite losing the first leg. They beat Barca 4-1 away from home extending their unbeaten away run in the UCL to three games (W2, D1). The only draw in that sequence came against Dortmund when both sides met in the group stages of this year’s UCL.

Away from the UCL, Paris Saint-Germain have wobbled domestically recently. The Parisians were on course to be humbled at home by relegation-threatened Le Havre on Saturday but a late fightback saw them turn a 3-1 deficit into a 3-3 draw. That result saw them miss the chance to claim the Ligue 1 title, but they only had to wait 24 hours longer as Monaco’s failure to beat Lyon on Sunday meant they’d claimed a third-successive top-flight crown.

They’ll hope there’s no hangover from the celebrations here. With a negative recent away record in Germany (W1, D2, L4), they’d have been wise not to party too hard in the build-up to this match as they try to finally win the UCL.