GNK Dinamo Zagreb vs Borussia Dortmund facts

Two points separate GNK Dinamo and Borussia Dortmund ahead of their meeting in Zagreb on UEFA Champions League Matchday 5.

The Croatian champions have responded to their opening 9-2 defeat at Bayern München by picking up seven points from their next three fixtures, drawing 2-2 at home to Monaco before wins at Salzburg (2-0) and Slovan Bratislava (4-1).

Dortmund have won three of their four matches, at Club Brugge (3-0) and at home to Celtic (7-1) and, on Matchday 4, Sturm Graz (1-0) in addition to a 5-2 loss at Real Madrid, BVB having been two goals up at half-time in what was a repeat of last season's final.

This is the clubs' first fixture, and Dortmund's first game against a Croatian club.

Form guide

GNK Dinamo

Record vs German clubs: W0 D2 L11 F11 A37
Home record vs German clubs: W0 D1 L5

Dinamo's 9-2 defeat at Bayern on Matchday 1 was their heaviest European loss and the first time a team had conceded nine in a Champions League match.

That made it seven successive defeats against Bundesliga teams, with six goals scored and 25 conceded, since a 1-1 draw at Stuttgart in the 1988/89 UEFA Cup second round second leg – a tie they lost 2-4 on aggregate.

A 2-2 draw at home to Magdeburg in the 1976/77 UEFA Cup second round – completing a 2-4 aggregate loss – is the only other one of Dinamo's 13 games against German teams they have not lost. They conceded 13 goals in their five home defeats.

Dinamo have reached the Champions League proper for a ninth time and a first since 2022/23, when they finished fourth on four points in a section that also included Chelsea, AC Milan and Salzburg.

The Zagreb club kicked off this season in the play-offs, easing past Qarabağ of Azerbaijan (3-0 h, 2-0 a).

Dinamo lost 3-4 on aggregate to AEK Athens in last season's Champions League third qualifying round and were then beaten 4-5 over two legs by Sparta Praha in the UEFA Europa League qualifying play-off. That took them into the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage, where they finished second in their section behind Viktoria Plzeň; they edged out Real Betis in the knockout round play-offs (1-0 a, 1-1 h) before losing an eventful last-16 tie against PAOK (2-0 h, 1-5 a).

The Croatian club have won five of their last eight home European matches (D2 L1).

Dinamo claimed a record 25th Croatian league title in 2023/24, their seventh successive triumph, to make it 35 league titles overall. They also lifted the Croatian Cup to win a 13th domestic double, and a first in three seasons.

Dortmund

BVB are in the Champions League proper for the 19th time overall and the ninth successive season. All but two of their last 11 campaigns have extended into the knockout rounds.

In 2023/24, Edin Terzić's team finished first in Group F before beating PSV Eindhoven (3-1 aggregate), Atlético de Madrid (5-4 agg) and Paris Saint-Germain (2-0 agg) to reach Dortmund's third European Cup final.

This season's Matchday 1 win at Club Brugge is one of 12 victories in BVB's last 29 away European matches (D3 L14).

European champions in 1997 and runners-up in 2013, Dortmund have been eliminated in the last 16 in three of their last six Champions League campaigns.

BVB were fifth in the Bundesliga in 2023/24, their lowest league placing since finishing seventh in 2014/15.

Nuri Şahin replaced Terzić as coach in the summer.

Links and trivia

Have played in Germany:
Ronaël Pierre-Gabriel (Mainz 2019/20)
Nathanaël Mbuku (Augsburg 2023–24)
Marko Pjaca (Schalke 2018 loan)

Latest news

GNK Dinamo

Saturday's 0-0 draw at home to Rijeka made it one win in Dinamo's last five league games (D3 L1).

A 2-4 loss at home to Osijek on 27 October is Dinamo's only defeat in 11 games in all competitions (W6 D4).

Sandro Kulenović has six goals in his last seven Dinamo appearances.

The Croatian champions' unbeaten league run of 23 matches (W19 D4), stretching back to 23 January, was ended by a 0-1 home loss against great rivals Hajduk Split on 13 September.

Dinamo lost 4-1 at Slaven Belupo on 21 September – the first time they had suffered successive league defeats since March 2023.

The Zagreb club have already lost three league games this season – one less than in the whole of 2023/24.

Petar Sučić was sent off in the first half of Croatia's 1-0 UEFA Nations League defeat in Scotland on 15 November.

Dortmund

Dortmund's record in this season's Bundesliga is W6 D1 L4. They were 4-0 victors at home to Freiburg on Saturday.

BVB lost 3-1 in Mainz on 9 November after Emre Can was sent off just before the half-hour.

For the first time in 19 years, BVB have not won any of their first five away league matches (D1 L4).

On 16 November Serhou Guirassy, who has 15 goals in 17 games for club and country this season, scored the winner in added time for Guinea in a 1-0 win against DR Congo in 2025 CAF Africa Cup of Nations qualifying.

On 19 November Felix Nmecha scored his first international goal on his first Germany start in a 1-1 UEFA Nations League draw in Hungary. He was also on target for BVB at the weekend.

The same day Maximilian Beier, who opened the scoring for Dortmund on Saturday, registered twice for Germany's Under-21 team in a 2-2 friendly draw in France.

Guirassy missed the weekend win with an infection.

Waldemar Anton played 90 minutes on Saturday having been out since 26 October with a hip injury. Julien Duranville (out since 1 October, thigh) and Giovanni Reyna (early September, groin) both came on.

Niklas Süle, out with an ankle injury since Matchday 3, and Karim Adeyemi, who has been missing since Matchday 2 with a thigh injury, are back in light training.