Leaders Dortmund face Amsterdam factor

AFC Ajax will look to maintain their proud unbeaten record against German visitors when Borussia Dortmund come calling. The Dutch champions have posted 12 wins in 13 home games in Amsterdam against Bundesliga sides and will hope for a lucky 13th against a Dortmund team who beat them 1-0 in Germany on matchday one.

• Jürgen Klopp's visitors are aiming to reach the last 16 for the first time since 2002/03; the unbeaten Group D leaders need a point at the Amsterdam ArenA to secure progress.

Past meetings
• Ajax coach Frank de Boer captained the team that overcame Ottmar Hitzfeld's Dortmund when these clubs met in the 1995/96 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals. Absent from the 2-0 first-leg success in Germany – where Edgar Davids and Patrick Kluivert scored – De Boer started the second leg as Kiki Musampa hit the only goal for Louis van Gaal's hosts.

• The lineups for that Amsterdam encounter on 20 March 1996 were:
Ajax: Van der Sar, Silooy, F de Boer, Davids, Bogarde, Scholten, Litmanen (Landzaat 88), Musampa, Wooter, Kanu, R de Boer.
Dortmund: Klos, Júlio César, Kohler, Kree, Wolters (Möller 61), Zorc, Freund, Tretschok (Reinhardt 63), Ricken, Chapuisat (Sosa 80), Riedle.

Match background
• Ajax are seeking their first back-to-back home wins in Europe since October/November 2008 following their 3-1 success against Manchester City FC on matchday three. Having taken four points off City, the Dutch title holders sit third in Group D and would move a point behind Dortmund with victory.

• Having conceded late equalisers at City and Real Madrid CF, Dortmund are still seeking their first away win in the competition, qualifying included, since beating AC Milan at San Siro in March 2003. They have since drawn two and lost four.

• Dortmund won 3-1 at PSV Eindhoven on their last visit to the Netherlands, for a UEFA Champions League first group stage fixture in October 2002. Jan Koller, Tomáš Rosický and Marcio Amoroso scored to earn a first victory against Dutch opponents at the sixth attempt; this season's defeat of Ajax was the second. Lars Ricken, now head of Dortmund's youth department, appeared in both that fixture and the 3-2 defeat by Feyenoord in the previous season's UEFA Cup final in Rotterdam.

• Ajax lifted the 1986/87 European Cup Winners' Cup with a 1-0 victory over 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig in Athens.

Team ties
• De Boer also won two-legged ties as a player against FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt, 1. FC Kaiserslautern, FC Bayern München and VfL Bochum 1848. Including appearances for FC Barcelona against Hertha BSC Berlin and Bayer 04 Leverkusen, he lost just one match out of 12 against Bundesliga teams.

• De Boer featured in the Netherlands' 3-1 win against Germany at EURO '92, and was captain in another 3-1 success in a Gelsenkirchen friendly in 2002. Germany's Sebastian Kehl came on at half-time as De Boer departed.

• At UEFA EURO 2012 Mats Hummels appeared in Germany's 2-1 victories over the Netherlands and Denmark, who included Christian Eriksen and substitute Christian Poulsen. Hummels featured for a Germany Under-21 team that beat Lasse Schøne's Denmark 4-0 in 2008.

• Hummels, Mario Götze and Marco Reus were substitutes in Germany's 3-0 friendly win against Ryan Babel's Netherlands in Hamburg in November 2011.

• On 14 November Kenneth Vermeer made his international debut in Amsterdam as the Netherlands drew 0-0 with Germany, who included Hummels, Götze, Reus, İlkay Gündoğan and substitute Sven Bender. Ricardo van Rhijn started for the home team.

• Götze's Germany beat Dico Koppers' Netherlands 2-1 to win the 2009 UEFA European U17 Championship title.

• Kolbeinn Sigthórsson helped Iceland get the better of Germany in their 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying group, scoring in a 2-2 away draw and, twice, in Iceland's 4-1 home victory. Julian Schieber scored in the first match and Kevin Grosskreutz in the second, Hummels and Marcel Schmelzer also playing.

• Poulsen played in three derby wins against Dortmund with FC Schalke 04 between 2002 and 2006, losing only once.

• Babel played for TSG 1899 Hoffenheim between January 2011 and August 2012, losing 3-1 at Dortmund in January.