After exactly two hours and 36 minutes in the air, the Turkish Airlines Airbus A321 - adorned with a distinctive black and yellow tail complete with BVB logo - that was carrying the Borussia squad to Greece touched down smoothly on the runway at Makedonia Airport in Thessaloniki.

Boris Rupert reporting from Thessaloniki

The next step was a short bus ride of just a few kilometres to the area where the Borussia Dortmund squad will prepare for their first away match of this year's UEFA Europa League group stage (kick-off on Thursday at 21:05 CET and live on Sport1, Sky and on the net radio) against Greek opponents PAOK Saloniki.

Though key players Mats Hummels, "Papa" Sokratis, Shinji Kagawa, Ilkay Gündogan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang have all been rested following the club's congested fixture list over the past few months - they have all averaged a game every four days - BVB are looking to build on their opening day 2-1 victory over FC Krasnodar two weeks ago by picking up some points in Greece.

The travelling contingent, which is still brimming with top players despite the aforementioned five remaining at home, is looking to extend an impressive run: in the UEFA Europa League and its predecessor competitions such as the UEFA and Intertoto Cups, Borussia Dortmund are unbeaten in nine away games. The last defeat on the road was a 4-0 loss to French outfit FC Sochaux on 27 November 2003. Since that night the Black and Yellows have won six times (in Genk, Udine, Karabakh, Lvov, Wolfsberg and Odds) and drawn on three occasions (in Olomouc, Paris and Seville).

The team's final training session will take place early this evening, after head coach Thomas Tuchel and midfielder Gonzalo Castro have faced the media at an international press conference.