Legia end long wait with Dortmund visit

Poland's first UEFA Champions League representatives in 20 years, Legia Warszawa kick off their campaign with a Group F home fixture against Borussia Dortmund.

Previous meetings
• This is the clubs' first official encounter though they met in a friendly in Warsaw on 29 July 2012, which Dortmund won 1-0 through a fourth-minute Robert Lewandowski goal.

• The lineups were:
Legia: Kuciak (Skaba 61), Rzeźniczak, Żewłakow (Jędrzejczyk 46), Wawrzyniak, Suler (Astiz 46), Gol (Radović 46), Łukasik (Vrdoljak 46), Furman (Kopczyński 67), Żyro (Żurek 78), Kosecki (Kucharczyk 46), Saganowski (Ljuboja 46).
Dortmund: Weidenfeller, Piszczek (Bender 46), Santana (Bittencourt 46), Hummels (Subotić 46), Löwe (Schmelzer 46), Kehl (Kirch 46), Gündoğan (Günter 46), Błaszczykowski (Perišić 46), Grosskreutz (Amini 46), Reus (Leitner 46), Lewandowski (Schieber 46).

Match background

Legia
• The Polish title holders are participating in the UEFA Champions League group stage for the first time since 1995/96 when they reached the quarter-finals under Paweł Janas. They are the first team from Poland to appear at this stage since RTS Widzew Łódź in 1996/97.

• Legia came through three qualifying rounds to reach this stage, overcoming HŠK Zrinjski (1-1 away, 2-0 home), FK AS Trenčín (1-0 a, 0-0 h) and Dundalk FC (2-0 a, 1-1 h).

• Legia finished bottom of their group in the 2015/16 UEFA Europa League (W1 D1 L4).

• They have never beaten German opposition in eight previous attempts (D3 L5).

• Their most recent encounter with a Bundesliga club brought a UEFA Cup second-round defeat in 2002/03 against FC Schalke 04 (2-3 h, 0-0 a).

• Legia's two heaviest home losses in their European history were against German opponents: a 7-3 drubbing by FC Bayern München in the 1988/89 UEFA Cup first round, and a 4-0 reverse against TSV 1860 München in the 1964/65 European Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals.

Dortmund
• Dortmund are returning to the UEFA Champions League after a one-season absence. On their last appearance, in 2014/15, they reached the last 16.

• In the UEFA Europa League last season, they reached the quarter-finals before losing 5-4 on aggregate to Liverpool FC. Their away record was W5 D1 L2.

• Dortmund's only previous official meeting with a Polish club came during their triumphant 1996/97 UEFA Champions League campaign when they faced Widzew in the group stage (2-1 h, 2-2 a).

Coach and player links
• Besnik Hasi faced Dortmund in his first European home game as coach of RSC Anderlecht in the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League group stage. Anderlecht lost 3-0 that night – Adrián Ramos scoring twice – but later earned a 1-1 draw at Dortmund.

• Hasi played on loan at 1860 München in 1997/98. The next season, he enjoyed a 6-1 aggregate victory over MSV Duisburg with KRC Genk in the 1998/99 European Cup Winners' Cup second round. Later, in the UEFA Champions League with Anderlecht, he faced Bayern in the 2003/04 group stage (1-1 h, 0-1 a) and Werder Bremen (h 1-2, a 1-5) in the 2004/05 group stage.

• Łukasz Piszczek won the Polish league title with Zagłębie Lubin in 2006/07 thanks to a 2-1 last-day win at Legia. He faced Legia four times overall with Zagłębie (W2 L2).

• Adam Hloušek had spells in Germany with 1. FC Kaiserslautern (2011), 1. FC Nürnberg (2012–14) and VfB Stuttgart (2014–2016). His record against Dortmund is W0 D2 L3.

• Mikhail Aleksandrov spent three years in Dortmund's youth and reserve ranks (2007–2010), making five league appearances for their second team.

• Mario Götze and substitute André Schürrle were in the Germany side held 0-0 by the Poland of Michał Pazdan, substitute Tomasz Jodłowiec and their Dortmund team-mate Piszczek in the UEFA EURO 2016 group stage.

• Götze had scored twice when Germany beat Poland 3-1 in a EURO qualifier in Frankfurt in September 2015.

• Kasper Hämäläinen was in the Finland side beaten 2-0 by Götze and Julian Weigl's Germany in a friendly on 31 August this year.

• Roman Bürki made his Switzerland debut in November 2014 in a 2-2 draw against a Poland side featuring Michał Kucharczyk and substitute Łukasz Broź.

Match facts

Legia
• Legia are five games without a win on home turf in all competitions.

• Nemanja Nikolić has scored nine goals in 14 outings for Legia this season.

• Legia have managed just 18 goals in 16 games in all competitions this season.

• The Warsaw giants have already used 28 different players in the league this season, with only goalkeeper Arkadiusz Malarz featuring in all eight matches.

• Legia picked up only nine points in their opening eight league games this season though they were little better off with 11 at the same stage last term when they went on to win the league.

• The Polish champions lost the Polish Super Cup 4-1 against KKS Lech Poznań on 7 July, their third successive defeat in the fixture.

Dortmund
• Dortmund are unbeaten in 22 Bundesliga home games – two shy of their record set between January 1965 and April 1966 and equalled from November 2001 to March 2003.

• Marco Reus (adductors), Neven Subotić (ribs) and Erik Durm (knee) are long-term injury absentees.

• André Schürrle withdrew from Germany's friendly against Finland and the FIFA World Cup qualifier in Norway due to a back problem but started Saturday's 1-0 loss at RB Leipzig.

• In World Cup qualifying Christian Pulisic scored twice as a substitute for the United States in a 6-0 win against St Vincent and the Grenadines on 2 September.

• Sven Bender and Matthias Ginter won silver medals on Olympic duty for Germany this summer.

• Dortmund started the season with a 2-0 loss to FC Bayern München in the German Super Cup.

*Subject to updates