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Pre-Match Report

Facts: home strength versus away weakness

In their first home game of the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League campaign, last season's finalists Borussia Dortmund will host Celtic. Here are the match facts.

The scenario: Both teams comfortably won their opening games. BVB ran out 3-0 winners in Bruges, while Celtic thumped Slovan Bratislava 5-1 in Glasgow. 

Home & away: The Black & Yellows are unbeaten in their last 11 home matches in the UEFA Champions League at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK. There have been seven wins and four draws, with a goal ratio of 20 scored and four conceded. They have only conceded goals in three of those 11 home matches. Celtic have lost their last five away matches in this competition, scoring two goals and conceding 18. 

Head-to-head record: The two teams have faced each in two previous home & away ties in European competition. BVB won their home games in both 1987 and 1992 by scorelines of 2-0 and 1-0 respectively, meaning they have never conceded at home to Celtic. Games away from home have ended in a 2-1 defeat and a 2-1 win for the Black & Yellows. A comprehensive look back at the history is available here.

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Champions League: Celtic are appearing in the UEFA Champions League for the third year in a row and the 13th time overall, but they have only made it to the last 16 on three occasions, the last time being in the 2012/13 season. Borussia Dortmund are taking part in the competition for the 19th time overall and the ninth time in a row (only nine clubs have appeared more often). The Black & Yellows have made it to the knockout stage in nine of their last 11 appearances.

Celtic facts: The Celtic Football Club have, together with their local rivals Rangers FC, dominated Scottish football for over a century. Celtic have won the Scottish title 54 times and the Scottish Cup 42 times. In 1967, the club won the European Cup, and reached the final again in 1970. In 2003, they made it to the final of the UEFA Cup. They have played 29 games on the European stage against German teams. They have won five, drawn five and lost 19. Of the 14 matches played in Germany, none have been won and three have ended in draws (in Bremen, in Mönchengladbach and in Hamburg). Their last four matches played away from home against Bundesliga teams have all ended in defeat, and their 3-2 loss in Leverkusen in the 2021/22 season was the only one in which they managed to get on the scoresheet.

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Borussia facts: 16 of Borussia Dortmund's 301 European matches have come against Scottish teams. Ten of those games were against Rangers. The Black & Yellows have conceded goals in just two of their eight home matches (which have brought four wins, three draws and one defeat): the 2-2 draw against Rangers in 1995 and the 4-2 defeat in 2022, which remains BVB's only home defeat against a club from Scotland.
Boris Rupert

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