Form favours Madrid turnaround

Real Madrid CF's recent UEFA Champions League home record suggests an awkward evening awaits Borussia Dortmund at the Santiago Bernabéu on matchday four.

• Dortmund were superb in drawing at Manchester City FC in their last away fixture, and overcame Madrid 2-1 in Germany on matchday three, but now visit opponents seeking an eighth straight home victory in the competition.

Past meetings
• Madrid ended Dortmund's reign as European champions when the teams first met in the 1997/98 semi-finals. Fernando Morientes and Christian Karembeu's first-leg goals in Madrid earned a 2-0 aggregate success for Jupp Heynckes' side, who went on to lift the trophy. Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc and director of youth development Lars Ricken featured in both matches for Nevio Scala's team.

• Madrid overcame Dortmund in the 2002/03 second group stage, winning 2-1 at home on 19 February 2003 as Raúl González and Ronaldo overturned Jan Koller's goal. Six days later Koller struck again but Javier Portillo's added-time strike made it 1-1. Madrid eventually qualified in second place, one point clear of Dortmund.

• The lineups for that most recent Madrid encounter on 19 February 2003 were:
Madrid: Casillas, Salgado, Helguera, Pavón, Roberto Carlos, Flávio Conceição, Makelele, Figo, Raúl, Zidane (Solari 81), Ronaldo (Guti 74).
Dortmund: Lehmann, Evanilson (Ricken 83), Metzelder, Wörns, Dedê, Reuter (Kehl 76), Frings, Ros, Ewerthon, Koller, Amoroso (Reina 67).

• Sebastian Kehl and Roman Weidenfeller remain with Dortmund and Iker Casillas is still Madrid's No1.

Match background
• Including their 3-2 victory over Manchester City on matchday one, Madrid have won seven straight home fixtures in the UEFA Champions League, scoring 27 goals.

• Madrid's record against German visitors is W18 D3 L2, including a 5-1 victory over 1 FC Köln in the first leg of the 1985/96 UEFA Cup final. Last season they defeated FC Bayern München 2-1 in the home leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final but lost the penalty shoot-out that followed. Bayern, with wins in 2000 and 2001, are the only Bundesliga team to have won at the Bernabéu.

• Dortmund's record in Spain is W1 D2 L5, including a 2-0 loss at FC Barcelona in the first leg of the 1997 UEFA Super Cup. That sole success was a 1-0 victory at Club Atlético de Madrid in the UEFA Champions League group stage in 1996/97 – the season they won the trophy.

• Dortmund's last trip to Spain yielded a 2-2 draw at Sevilla FC in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League group stage. Neven Subotić scored a second-half equaliser but Dortmund, needing three points to progress, were eliminated.

• Beaten in all three fixtures on the road last term, Dortmund last won a UEFA Champions League away game in 2003 at AC Milan.

Team ties
• Germany's Marcel Schmelzer, Mats Hummels, Marco Reus, Mario Götze, İlkay Gündoğan, Sven Bender and Kevin Grosskreutz are international colleagues of Sami Khedira and Mesut Özil.

• All bar Bender and Grosskreutz featured in Germany's 3-1 friendly loss to Argentina in August. Khedira (own goal) and Ángel Di María were on the scoresheet and Gonzalo Higuaín also played. Higuaín struck the only goal in Argentina's 1-0 March 2010 win against Germany in Munich.

• Ivan Perišić appeared as a substitute alongside Luka Modrić in Croatia's 1-0 loss against Casillas, Xabi Alonso, Álvaro Arbeloa and Sergio Ramos's Spain at UEFA EURO 2012.

• Hummels played in Germany's 1-0 UEFA EURO 2012 group stage victory over a Portugal side featuring Pepe, Fábio Coentrão and Cristiano Ronaldo.

• Subotić's Serbia were beaten 2-0 by a Spain side including Casillas, Ramos, Alonso and Raúl Albiol in May.

• Jakub Błaszczykowski and Robert Lewandowski's Poland lost 6-0 to Spain in June 2010, Alonso scoring once.

• Özil played for Dortmund's local rivals FC Schalke 04 between 2006 and January 2008 before joining SV Werder Bremen. His only goal against Dortmund in seven appearances came in a 1-1 home draw in November 2009.

• Khedira won the 2006/07 Bundesliga title with VfB Stuttgart.