Dortmund out to prolong Sporting's German drought

Borussia Dortmund are eyeing early qualification for the UEFA Champions League knockout stage as they host Sporting Clube de Portugal on matchday four.

• Having won 2-1 in Portugal, Dortmund will guarantee their qualification with victory over a Sporting side placed four points behind both their hosts and Real Madrid CF in Group F.

Dortmund
• Thomas Tuchel's men sit top of the section, level on seven points with Real Madrid CF.

• Since the beginning of last season Dortmund have lost just one of nine home games in UEFA competition, including a 2-2 draw with Madrid on matchday two.

• Dortmund's last home meeting with Portuguese visitors came against FC Porto in last season's UEFA Europa League round of 32, when Łukasz Piszczek and Marco Reus earned them a 2-0 victory (agg 3-0).

• Dortmund have a 100% home record against Portuguese sides (P4 W4).

Sporting
• Sporting sit in third place in Group F. Prior to losing to Dortmund last time out, they had lost narrowly at Madrid (1-2) on matchday one before beating Legia 2-0 on matchday two.

• The Lisbon club have never won in Germany (D1 L11).

• João Mário scored for Sporting in their 3-1 loss at Bayer 04 Leverkusen (1-4 agg) in the UEFA Europa League round of 16 last term. Sporting also lost in Germany at the same stage of the same competition in 2014/15, going down 2-0 at VfL Wolfsburg (0-2 agg). Bas Dost got both goals for a Wolfsburg team also including André Schürrle.

• Adrien Silva hit the only goal when Sporting beat German opponents for the first time at the 17th attempt – home or away – when defeating Hertha BSC Berlin 1-0 in Lisbon in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League group stage. Piszczek and Adrián Ramos were in the Hertha side.

Coach and player links
• Jorge Jesus's record against German clubs prior to this season was P15 W5 D2 L8.

• The UEFA Intertoto Cup aside, Jesus had his first taste of European competition as coach of CF Os Belenenses against FC Bayern München in the first round of the UEFA Cup in 2007/08 (0-1 a, 0-2 h).

• His biggest victory over German opposition was with SL Benfica – a 4-0 UEFA Europa League round of 32 home success over a Hertha side containing Piszczek and Ramos in February 2010.

• Schürrle got the better of Sporting with two different clubs in 2014/15. After playing in two Chelsea FC wins in the UEFA Champions League group stage – 1-0 away, 3-1 home, scoring past Rui Patrício in the latter – he appeared in both legs of Wolfsburg's UEFA Europa League round of 32 success.

• Dost scored in Wolfsburg's 3-1 victory over Dortmund in the 2015 German Cup final. He had got Wolfsburg's winner in a 3-2 success at Dortmund in the 2012/13 Bundesliga season.

• Dost was also a scorer when Wolfsburg beat Tuchel's Mainz 3-0 in the 2013/14 Bundesliga.

• Also played in Germany:
Luc Castaignos (Eintracht Frankfurt, 2015/16 – P1 W1 v Dortmund)
João Pereira (Hannover 96, 2014/15)

• Piszczek was in the Poland side beaten on penalties in the UEFA EURO 2016 quarter-finals by a Portugal side including Rui Patrício, William Carvalho and Adrien Silva.

• Matthias Ginter scored in Germany's 4-0 win over a Portugal side captained by Sporting B defender Ricardo Esgaio at the Rio Olympics.

• Sokratis Papastathopoulos hit a 91st-minute Greece equaliser to cancel out Bryan Ruiz's goal for Costa Rica when the countries drew 1-1 in the last 16 at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Ruiz had the final word, converting a spot kick in Costa Rica's 5-3 shoot-out success.

• Ruiz also traded goals with Shinji Kagawa when his Costa Rica side lost 3-1 to Japan in a 2014 friendly.

• Have played together:
Sebastián Coates & Nuri Şahin (Liverpool FC, 2012/13)
Bas Dost & Andre Schürrle (VfL Wolfsburg, 2015–16)

Match facts

Dortmund
• Dortmund have gone four Bundesliga games without a win following a 0-0 draw in Saturday's Ruhr derby against FC Schalke 04.

• Roman Weidenfeller saved two spot kicks as Dortmund overcame second-tier 1. FC Union Berlin 3-0 on penalties, after a 1-1 draw, in the last 32 of the German Cup on 26 October.

• Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (calf), Marc Bartra (adductors) and Christian Pulišić (ill) missed the game against Union. Aubameyang and Pulišić played against Schalke while Bartra was an unused substitute.

• Marcel Schmelzer (out since 14 October, adductors) is unavailable, but Schürrle (27 September, knee) and Raphaël Guerreiro (7 October, thigh) both made substitute appearances against Schalke.

• Sven Bender (ankle), Reus (adductors), Neven Subotić (ribs) and Erik Durm (knee) are long-term absentees. Reus, however, resumed full training on 20 October.

• Aubameyang is among the 30 players shortlisted for the 2016 Ballon d'Or by France Football magazine.

Sporting
• A 95th-minute equaliser by substitute Joel Campbell salvaged Sporting a 1-1 draw against CD Tondela on 22 October, preserving an unbeaten home Liga record dating back to 5 March.

• Sporting had scored in their last 21 matches in all competitions before Friday's goalless draw at CD Nacional.

• Castaignos, an August signing from Eintracht Frankfurt, made his Sporting debut against Tondela as a 61st-minute substitute.

• Captain Adrien had knee surgery at the start of October and will be sidelined until mid-November.

• Rui Patrício is on the 2016 Ballon d'Or shortlist.