Champions League

Champions League Matchday Two: Madrid to play Dortmund, Leceister host Porto

Real Madrid’s trip to Borussia Dortmund takes centre stage in Tuesday’s Champions League matchday two action, while Monaco and Leicester City attempt to build on potentially crucial away victories last time out.

Defending champions Madrid left it late to beat Sporting CP in their opening Group F fixture and will be looking to alter some unwanted history at Signal Iduna Park.

Leicester, having so convincingly beaten Club Brugge last time out, host a Champions League game for the first time at the King Power Stadium, while fellow Premier League side Tottenham are aiming to kick-start their European campaign.

Using Opta data, we take a look at the best stats ahead of Tuesday’s eight group-stage matches.

 

MONACO v BAYER LEVERKUSEN

– Monaco are unbeaten in their four previous competitive encounters with Bayer Leverkusen, all in the Champions League (W3 D1). They won 1-0 in each of their two group games against Roger Schmidt’s team in the 2014-15 campaign.
– Monaco have won six of their last seven competitive meetings with German sides (D1), keeping a clean sheet in each of those six wins.
– Bayer Leverkusen are winless in their last six Champions League games (D4 L2), the last three of which have all been score draws.
– The German side have also won just twice in their last 23 away games in the competition (D6 L15).
– Monaco have lost just two of their last 17 home games in the Champions League (W12 D3), although both defeats in that run came in their last six fixtures there.

CSKA MOSCOW v TOTTENHAM

– This is the first competitive meeting between CSKA Moscow and Tottenham.
– CSKA have failed to keep clean sheet in their last eight Champions League games against English opposition.
– Spurs failed to win any of their away Group Stage games in their only other Champions League appearance in 2010-11 (W0 D2 L1); their only away victory that season came at San Siro against AC Milan in the Last 16 (1-0).
– Tottenham are winless in their last four Champions League games (D1 L3), losing the last three in a row and scoring just one goal in total.
– CSKA have conceded in each of their last 23 Champions League matches since recording back to back clean sheets against Trabzonspor in 2011.
BORUSSIA DORTMUND v REAL MADRID

– Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid are facing each other for the seventh time in the last five Champions League seasons (2x group stage games, 2x semi-final games and 2x quarter-final games).
– Madrid are winless in their five away games against Dortmund, all in the Champions League (D2 L3). In all European competitions, only against AC Milan and Inter have Madrid travelled more times without ever winning (seven each).
– Borussia Dortmund have won their last four home games against Spanish opposition in European competition, scoring at least twice in each of those games.
– Madrid are unbeaten in their last 22 Champions League Group Stage matches (W18 D4 L0), last losing at this stage against Dortmund in October 2012.
– Dortmund secured their biggest-ever win in the Champions League on MD1 of the 2016-17 campaign against Legia Warsaw (6-0), scoring six goals in the competition for the first time.

SPORTING CP v LEGIA WARSAW

– Sporting and Legia’s only previous encounters were in the Last 32 of the 2011-12 Europa League. The Lisbon side won 1-0 at home after drawing 2-2 in Poland.
– No Polish side has ever won an away game against Portuguese opposition in 11 previous attempts (W0 D2 L9), with a collective tally of 30 goals conceded and three goals scored.
– Sporting have won just two of their last nine Champions League games (W2 D1 L6), although those two wins came in their last two home fixtures in the competition.
– Sporting have lost just three of their last 27 home games in European competition (excluding qualifying) although all three defeats came in their last eight games there (W17 D7 L3).
– Legia Warsaw have lost their last five in a row away from home in European competition (excluding qualifying), four of those defeat coming via a 1-0 scoreline.

COPENHAGEN v CLUB BRUGGE

– Copenhagen have never scored at home against a Belgian side, in all competitions (three games).
– Club Brugge won 4-0 on their last visit to FC Copenhagen, in the group stages of the 2014-15 Europa League. Club Brugge forward Lior Refaelov scored a first-half hat-trick.
– In fact, Club Brugge have won four of their last six competitive away trips to Denmark (W4 D2 L0).
– Copenhagen have won just one of their last nine Champions League games, (W1 D3 L5), that win coming against Galatasaray in November 2013.
– In Copenhagen’s last 10 Champions League home games there have been just 19 goals in total, Copenhagen scoring 11 and conceding just eight in that run.
LEICESTER CITY v PORTO

– This is the first competitive meeting between Leicester City and Porto.
– Porto have never won a competitive away game against an English side, losing 15 of their 17 trips (W0 D2 L15).
– Leicester’s win against Brugge meant they became just the third English club to win on their Champions League debut after Manchester United and Newcastle United.
– Only Milan in November 1992 and Atletico Madrid in 1996 have recorded a bigger margin of victory than Leicester in their first ever Champions League game (both 4-0).
– Porto are winless in their last three Champions League games (W0 D1 L2), this after losing just one in 14 prior to that (W9 D4 L1).

SEVILLA v LYON

– This is the first competitive meeting between Sevilla and Lyon.
– Sevilla have lost four of their five competitive games against French opposition, the only exception being a 2-0 home win against Lille in the Last 16 of the 2005-06 UEFA Cup.
– Meanwhile, Lyon have won on only two of their 11 trips to Spain in the Champions League (W2 D3 L6): against Real Sociedad in February 2004 (1-0) and Valencia in December 2015 (2-0). These two wins are also the only times Lyon have kept a clean sheet on the road against Spanish clubs.
– Sevilla have won 14 of their last 16 home games in Europe, keeping a clean sheet in nine of those games (W14 D0 L2).
– Lyon have won their last two Champions League games, although they have not won three on the bounce in the competition since October 2010.

DINAMO ZAGREB v JUVENTUS

– Dinamo Zagreb and Juventus’ only previous competitive encounters were in the quarter-finals of the 1966-67 Fairs Cup. Dinamo won 5-2 on aggregate, drawing 2-2 in Turin and winning 3-0 in Zagreb.
– Since that 3-0 victory against Juventus in 1967, Dinamo Zagreb have won only two of their 17 games against Italian opposition (D5 L10).
– In fact, Dinamo are the last Croatian side to win a home game in Europe against an Italian club, it was in November 2000 when they beat Parma in the UEFA Cup (1-0).
– Juventus have won just one of their last seven Champions League games (W1 D4 L2), failing to win any of their last four; their worst run without a win since they went six games without victory in November 2013 (D3 L3).
– The Turin side has won just once in their last six Champions League away games (W1 D3 L2), losing the last two

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