Tottenham vs Dortmund Preview, Team News, Line-ups, Betting Tips & Prediction

Tottenham Hotspur will kick-off their Champions League group stage campaign when they entertain Borussia Dortmund at Wembley this evening.

Spurs will be aiming to book their place in the knockout stages of the competition this year after failing to make it out of their group last season following disappointing defeats at home to Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen.

However, they haven’t been given an easy task this time around as Tottenham have been pitted in Group H along with Borussia Dortmund, Apoel Nicosia and holders Real Madrid.

Mauricio Pochettino will know getting off to a positive start against Dortmund this evening will be vital for their qualification hopes but they’ll need to improve upon their poor record at Wembley.

Spurs have lost eight of their last twelve games at the ‘Home of Football’ and have taken just one point from their opening two Premier League games at their adopted home so it’s vital they end that hoodoo this evening against a dangerous Dortmund side.

Team news

Tottenham will be without Dele Alli as the attacker starts a three-match European suspension following his sending off against Gent in the Europa League last season.

Heung-min Son is the man most likely to come in for Alli while Serge Aurier is pushing to make his debut following his move from Paris Saint-Germain in the summer.

However, Erik Lamela (hip), Danny Rose (knee) and Victor Wanyama (knee) all remain sidelined through injury.

Dortmund will miss defender Marc Bartra due to a groin injury while captain Marcel Schmelzer has been ruled out for seven weeks after tearing ankle ligaments at the weekend.

Jeremy Toljan is set to deputise at left-back while new signing Andriy Yarmolenko is pushing to make his full debut after coming off the bench at Freiburg on Saturday.

However, Marco Reus, Raphael Guerreiro, Andre Schürrle, Erik Durm, Sebastian Rode and Erik Durm are all long-term injuries.

Likely Line-Ups

Predicted Score

Tottenham 2-2 Dortmund: If this game was played at White Hart Lane I’d fancy the north Londoners to win but Spurs have obvious problems at Wembley to deal with. Dortmund are a terrific side on their day and will cause Spurs plenty of problems so it should be an entertaining game. However, despite their Wembley woes, I don’t see Tottenham losing tonight so I’m backing a goal-scoring draw.

Betting Tips

Spurs are the narrow 13/10 favourites to win this game with the bookmakers but here are some other bets I like the look of:

• Both teams to score at: 4/7 – a £10 bet would return £15.70
• Exact score of 2-2 draw at: 11/1 – a £10 bet would return £120