In a repeat of last season’s Champions League final, Real Madrid welcome Borussia Dortmund to the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday night.
After kicking off their title defence with a 3-1 win over VfB Stuttgart, Carlo Ancelotti’s side crashed to a shock 1-0 defeat at Lille on matchday two.
That stumble has left Real Madrid sitting in 17th place in the league phase table after two rounds of action.
Los Blancos warmed up for their midweek battle with Borussia Dortmund by claiming a 2-1 victory at Celta Vigo in La Liga on Saturday night.
The German giants also posted a 2-1 win of their own in the Bundesliga at the weekend, as they squeezed past St. Pauli.
As for the Champions League, Nuri Sahin’s side are setting the early pace in the league table thanks to a pair of commanding 3-0 and 7-1 wins over Club Brugge and Celtic respectively.
How the bookies view it: Los Blancos big favourites.
Despite losing to Lille in their last Champions League outing, Real Madrid are massive 4/9 favourites with Betano.
Borussia Dortmund are big underdogs at 5/1 on Betano, while a share of the Santiago Bernabeu spoils is an unfancied 15/4 with the same firm.
Head to head: Real tend to reign supreme
Real Madrid have won seven of the overall 12 meetings between the pair, the most recent of which was the 2024 Champions League final. That triumph also saw the Spanish heavyweights extend their unbeaten run in this fixture to five matches.
Players to watch: Mbappe to make his mark?
Kylian Mbappe has hit eight goals across his opening 12 appearances for Real Madrid. As tends to be the case more often than not, the French forward is the anytime goalscorer market leader on Tuesday night at 4/5 on Bet 365.
Serhou Guirassy, who has notched three times across Borussia Dortmund’s opening two Champions League games this season, is 23/10 (William Hill) to strike in the Spanish capital.
Predicted line-ups
Real Madrid will be unable to call upon the services of the injured Brahim Diaz, Dani Carvajal and David Alaba on Tuesday night.
Karim Adeyemi, who stole the show by hitting a hat-trick in the aforementioned 7-1 hammering of Celtic, is ruled out with a hamstring injury. Last season's Champions League runners-up will also be without injured trio Giovanni Reyna, Julien Duranville and Yan Couto.
Real Madrid: Courtois; Vazquez, Militao, Rudiger, Mendy; Bellingham, Tchouameni, Valverde; Rodrygo, Mbappe, Vinicius Jr
Borussia Dortmund: Kobel; Ryerson, Anton, Schlotterbeck, Bensebaini; Can, Sabitzer; Malen, Brandt, Gittens; Guirassy
Anything else catch the eye?
At the time of writing, player foul markets have still to be priced up by the bookies, but keep an out for Emre Can to commit two or more on Tuesday night.
The Dortmund skipper gave away no fewer than four free-kicks during the aforementioned 7-1 shredding of Celtic.
Can has also committed multiple fouls in the two Bundesliga games he has played from start to finish this season, so a repeat here could be worth getting on board if the price permits.
This UEFA Champions League match between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund will be played on Oct 22, 2024 and kick off at 20:00. Check below for our tipsters best Real Madrid vs Borussia Dortmund prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
